Hampus Lindholm gave one of the more intriguing exit interviews last week after the Ducks disappointing game 7 loss. He took on the media in full force and made it evidently clear that he has his sights set on being the best defensemen in the NHL one day. Lindholm, who turned 21 in January, displayed maturity beyond his years and the 2014-2015 seasons showed that he is on the right path to accomplishing his goal of becoming the leagues top blue-liner.
Lindholm, selected 6th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2012 entry draft, backed up his impressive rookie campaign with a stellar sophomore season. 7 goals, 27 assists, 34 points and a remarkable +25 rating (2nd in the league amongst defensemen), not bad for the youngest player on the Ducks roster.
Lindholm’s rookie year was no fluke and his incredible development throughout his sophomore season shows signs of a great player in the making. However, this is not at all up to the standards that Lindholm has set for himself but everything he did during the ’14-’15 season leads to believe that he can one day be a solidified number one defensemen for the Ducks.
Highlights
Hampus Lindholm took an enormous step forward this season. He showed his unique skillset throughout his rookie season, but this year Lindholm displayed confidence with the puck in making correct decisions, something that only the great ones seem to be able to do. He continued to produce while maintaining his impressive plus minus rating that put him in the top 3 amongst defensemen for the 2nd year in a row, sort of impressive since the guy has only been around for 2 years. His confidence was inevitably building with each game and towards the second half of the season it almost appeared that Lindholm was now the one carrying his veteran defensive partner, Francois Beauchemin. The most telling sign of this was in game 1 against Chicago when Beauchemin made a careless play that led to a Brad Richards breakaway goal and Lindholm calmly skated over to the hunched over frustrated Beauchemin and gently gave him a “keep your head up and lets keep working” tap on the leg. The 21 year old Lindholm was letting the 34 year old veteran know that it was not time to sulk, it was time to continue working. Being the leagues best defensemen doesn’t just mean “x” number of assists and “x” number of points, it means being a leader who does what it takes to win. Lindholm showed throughout the season that he understands what being a number one defensemen entails, he gets it, and he is showing a rapid rate of maturity that should earn him a multi year contract before the summer on 2016 when his entry level deal expires. To showcase Lindholm’s incredible second NHL season, here’s a blind statistics comparison.
2nd Year Stats:
Player A: 7 Goals – 34 Assists – 41 Points – +7 Rating – 0.48 Points/Game – 28 Penalty Minutes
Player B: 7 Goals – 27 Assists – 34 Points – +25 Rating – 0.44 Points/Game – 32 Penalty Minutes
Player C: 10 Goals – 36 Assists – 46 Points – +34 Rating – 0.56 Points/Game – 42 Penalty Minutes
Any guesses? Well, “Player A” is Nicklas Lidstrom and “Player C” is Scott Niedermayer, two of the best defensemen to ever play the game. “Player B” is Hampus Lindholm. The more you look at this, the more you should be impressed by Lindholm’s play this season. Lidstrom and Niedermayer both played in a different era when the top defensemen were producing 50 point seasons like it was nothing. Lindholm almost replicated their numbers in a season where only 3 defensemen hit the 60 point mark. The more you look at these stats, the more it leads you to believe in Lindholm’s ability. Not to mention that during the three’s second full NHL season, Lindholm had the best postseason plus/minus rating (+2). Lindholm talked about being the best and his play during the 2014-2015 season shows that he means business. It’s hard to pin-point one highlight attribute or moment from Lindholm’s season because he was extremely reliable night in and night out, his entire season was noteworthy.
Anaheim Ducks
Room For Improvement
It’s easy to find flaws in a young defensemen’s game. Most second year blue-liners have areas in which they struggle but Lindholm is about as well rounded as they come. He produced offensively, played terrific defense as he was rarely out of position, and he played more minutes on special teams than he had in his rookie season. All steps in the right direction. One area of Lindholm’s game that could improve however is his physicality. At 6 foot 3, 200 pounds Lindholm has the size to play more physical type of game. Lidstrom and Niedermayer never played overly physical and neither had a true mean streak in them, but Lindholm has the size and strength to do so. However, playing with the hard hitting Beauchemin may have rubbed off on Lindholm a bit more this season as we saw with his monster hit on New Jersey Devils forward, Mark Fraser. Here is a link to the video of that hit. WARNING: It’s awesome.
Lindholm is such an incredible skater and his maturity is clearly growing and now it is time for him to make the next jump to be an elite NHL defensemen. The last area of improvement for Lindholm would be his offensive rush generation. With such incredible skating and stick handling abilities, Lindholm could easily start the coast to coast rush more often. He has done an incredible job of picking his spots to join the rush to this point in his career and if he continues to choose the right moment, carrying the puck into the offensive zone could make Hampus and the Ducks even more dangerous.
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