He ain't got no offense. I'm not betting on him finding his way out of the AHL.
Actually he's quite good. I could see him reaching 40-45 points in the NHL if used in the right way.
The thing about Lindberg that makes him so special is that you can ask him to do anything and he will do it and do it well. He does not have any super plus qualities from what I know, but being above average in pretty much every category you can think of is special on its own.
His stats are misleading. He only picked up 16 points in 44 games last year (I seriously remembered that), but that was in a grinding role mostly. The year before, in a more scoring role, he got like 22 points in 34 games on a terrible Binghamton squad, and then came here and put up another 11 in 22 in a lesser role. Plus 2 goals in 6 games in the bottom 6 of a crap Leafs team. All as a rookie. 33 points in 56 games is not a bad AHL debut for a two-way forward not always used in a scoring role.
Next year, given the lack of size in the lineup, I would not be surprised to see him in a top 6 role. He can shutdown top lines (he shut down McDavid in the OHL) and can more than keep up offensively while giving some size to a smaller forward group. After that, I can definitely see him replacing Komarov. He's not as physical, but I think he's more talented. That role is his role in the NHL.
The only question marks are with his injury last year. He apparently also had one in his rookie year, but he did not miss much time because of it. He also apparently but heads with Binghamton coaching, but that does not seem like his character and they say he "matured" since then (I doubt he had issues in the first place, but incompetent coaching can bring out the worst in players sometimes). The same article I read that also ragged on him for his rookie production not being better and being benched in the AHL playoffs in favour of Kapanen... so I question their knowledge of AHL hockey.
Don't sleep on Lindberg. Don't sleep on a lot of the lesser known guys... it is tough to see beyond the lack of flashiness or production, but many of the guys that looked like head scratchers have a lot more game than you think.
