[sureLoss]

https://www.nhl.com/news/macklin-cel...at-nhl-combine

Lindstrom's health
Cayden Lindstrom, who won the Canadian Hockey League's Top Draft Prospect Award, will not participate in all the testing at the combine this week for precautionary reasons after sustaining a back injury in December, according to his agent Daren Hermiston.

"He's going to test on a few of the physical portions of it and there's a couple he's staying away from that he has exemptions on," Hermiston said. "There's a few things we're staying away from for the time being that aren't being advised by his trainers."

The 18-year-old center had 46 points (27 goals, 19 assists) in 32 games prior to the injury that ended his regular season in Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League. Lindstrom scored a goal in 19 of 32 games (59 percent), which included eight multigoal games.

His health will likely be a topic of discussion among the 19 club interviews he has scheduled this week.

"We've used an NHL team's physician since Christmas on this injury and on [May 24] I provided Central Scouting with the report," Hermiston said. "The report from the NHL team physician and Cayden's physiotherapist was given to all 32 NHL teams.

"The summary of the report is that Cayden is going to make a full recovery. His back has been good for a while, and he's back to training five days a week and he's on the ice. All the NHL clubs have the report, they have the MRI, and they know the doctor's opinion is that he's going to make full recovery."

At the time of the injury, Lindstrom, considered to be an elite power forward of this draft, was on pace to score at least 57 goals. He played just four of five WHL playoff games and was not released to Canada for participation in the 2024 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in May as a precaution.