More on Lindholm, this time from
Expressen.
Apparently he rides a lot on the unicycle to improve his balance.
The newspaper visited Lindholm in his (tiny) hometown outside Gävle (where Brynäs IF, his Swedish team, is located).
The family's garage has been remade into a gym.
On the unicycle: "I've done a lot of exercise on this. I've biked around on it with the stick in my hands and while practicing stickhandling. I've also juggled balls while biking. A lot of people say that I have good balance on the rink and this has probably contributed a bit to that"
Lindholm scraped together more points (11+19) than any other junior ever in SHL.
On the fact that he had a more difficult period around christmas: "I wanted to show off my skills and built up expectations on myself. I tried to let all that go but the world juniors was a tough competition and the points didn't really come in. I put really high demands on myself and want to succeed with everything. The biggest pressure comes from myself."
On his interviews at the combine: "It's hard to tell if any team was more interested than the others. I know that Carolina, Calgary, Edmonton, Buffalo, and New Jersey are picking around my rank so I might go to one of those teams, but you never know with all the trades going on"
With him at the draft he has his entire family. Of note is that his dad won the Swedish Championship with Luleå Hockey in 1996 and made over 350 appearances in the Swedish league. He also played 18 games for LA Kings.
On being picked early: "Doesn't matter at all really. Both Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsuyk went in the sevent-eight round. If you're drafted in the first round there's immediately more pressure on you. Everyone will know that a kid from Sweden was drafted in the first round. Everyone wants/expects him to be good while there might be less pressure on someone who goes in the third/fourth round"
On the future: "For me, the most important thing is that I end up in a team with a plan and can talk to them about what's best for my development. Some clubs are in a hurry and want you to come over as soon as possible even though you might want to stay and play in the Swedish league to prepare yourself more thoroughly. Being able to listen to each other feels important."
The plan is to stay one more year in Sweden.
