After a tough couple of seasons in San Jose, it appears as if pending UFA winger Oskar Lindblom won’t be waiting around to see what type of offers could await him in free agency in July. Instead, he told Gefle Dagblad’s Daniel Sandstrom that he has told his agent to solicit offers from the SHL in his native Sweden.
The 27-year-old’s journey is well-known. After a promising start to his career in Philadelphia, Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma (a rare form of bone cancer) in the 2019-20 campaign after getting off to a promising start. However, he was able to return in the bubble playoffs and earned a three-year, $9MM extension soon after along with a Masterton Trophy in 2021.
However, things didn’t go so well after that point. The Flyers elected to buy out the final season of that deal but he landed with San Jose quickly, inking a two-year, $5MM agreement. With San Jose heading into a rebuild, they were eyeing Lindblom as a young veteran with perhaps a bit of upside if a change of scenery could have kickstarted him.
Unfortunately for both sides, that didn’t happen. While Lindblom was a regular most nights in 2022-23 with the Sharks, that wasn’t the case this year. He cleared waivers at the end of training camp in October and spent almost the entire year with the Barracuda, save for a single NHL appearance in November. Lindblom struggled in the minors as well, notching just eight goals and eight assists in 41 games, battling through injuries and illness along the way.
Given the disappointing season he had, there was no guarantee that an NHL offer would be coming Lindblom’s way so he’s now going to try to land one back home. He played for Brynas coming up and asked his agent to reach out to assess if there’s mutual interest in a reunion. Assuming he winds up signing somewhere in Sweden, Lindblom will depart the NHL with 56 goals and 56 assists in 337 games over parts of seven NHL seasons, a pretty good showing for a fifth-round pick having been picked 138th overall back in 2014.