Lindstrom undergoes back surgery Tuesday, still expected to return to Tigers after recovery

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on November 21, 2024.

sports@medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

The Columbus Blue Jackets announced Wednesday that Cayden Lindstrom underwent surgery earlier this week to remedy a back injury dating to last season.

During a media availability with Columbus reporters Wednesday, Blue Jackets’ general manager Don Waddell told reporters about the procedure done Tuesday and outlined the recovery plan for the 18-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers forward.

“He’s been working and doing everything we’ve asked of him,” Waddell said in the media availability posted on YouTube. “But he’s gotten to a point where he can’t get to 100 per cent. He’s 90 per cent or so, so our doctors recommended that he have the procedure.”

Waddell says doctors performed a microdiscectomy on Lindstrom’s lower back, working to fix a herniated disk that held the Chetwynd, B.C. product out of the lineup for all but four playoff games in the second half of last season.

“There was a tiny little fragment they saw on the MRI that they had to shave off,” Waddell said.

The Blue Jackets’ GM says Lindstrom will be limited in activity for 30 days before ramping back up to play again this season. Waddell says the expectation is still for Lindstrom to play this season with the Tigers.

Aaron Portzline, a reporter with The Athletic, says Lindstrom has been skating away from the rest of the team over the last month. He spoke with Lindstrom’s agent Daren Hermiston about the procedure.

“I know he feels a sense of relief. The (Blue Jackets) and I consulted a number of experts, all with the approach to be conservative with it and give it time. He was improving. He was feeling good. But the doctors reached a point where they didn’t think he was going to get over that last hurdle without this procedure. So for Cayden, there definitely was a sense of relief that there’s a solution to this. This is what we’re going to do and you’re going to feel great soon.”

Portzline also reported Lindstrom’s surgery was performed in Los Angeles where he will remain in a hotel before he returns to Columbus for the rest of his recovery and rehab.

Lindstrom was selected fourth overall by the Blue Jackets in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft in June. He rose up the draft ranks with an electric start to the 2023-24 WHL season in the orange and black, putting up 27 goals and 46 points in 32 games. He then missed the all of the second half of the regular season with a hand injury and the herniated disk.

He appeared in four playoff games in the Tigers’ first-round series against the Red Deer Rebels, with a goal and an assist.

With files from The Athletic

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