Red Wings Prospect Gustav Lindstrom To Play In World Junior Championship Gold Medal Game

The Red Wings didn’t have much to watch at this year’s World Junior Championships. With four of their prospects taking part in the tournament, only three of them received regular playing time as goalie Filip Larsson has served as a back-up on Team Sweden, including during tonight’s gold medal game. Of those three, only one has played in a medal round.

Gustav Lindstrom was selected in the second round (38th overall) in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. His selection was a bit of a surprise as he wasn’t in anyone’s projections to go before the 85th overall pick. Still, the Wings liked his strong skating and puck moving abilities, not to mention the fact that he’s a right-handed defenseman and over six feet tall, which was a major focus for the Wings in the 2017 draft.

The pick was maybe a little justified when Lindstrom was named to Sweden’s 2018 World Junior Championship team. Though he may have been brought on to play on the 5-6 pair, it’s a prestigious crowd of Swedish defensemen to be a part of with Rasmus Dahlin, Erik Brannstrom, and Timothy Liljegren all manning the blueline.

Since the IIHF has not released any time on ice statistics, it’s hard for me to quantify how much Lindstrom has actually played, but rest assured it’s not much compared to the big guns this team has. He has, though, added an assist and three shots on goal over the course of the tournament, with a plus-2 rating and four penalty minutes, in Sweden’s journey to the Gold Medal Game.

Regardless of how big of a role he’s playing on this team, it’s good for him to get exposure to players like Dahlin and Brannstrom, who play the game with such finesse that you can’t help but be hypnotized. Not to mention playing in a high stakes game like this against arguably the best junior team in the world.

So I’d say this tournament has been a success for Lindstrom, who will walk away with a medal regardless of the results of tonight’s game. The bigger question is where he’ll find himself at the start of next season. Are the Wings ready to bring him over the pond for North American conditioning? Or do they want him to see more playing time in Sweden? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Game time tonight is 8:00 P.M. ET. NHL Network will be broadcasting the game or, if you’re in Canada, you can catch it on TSN.