COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cayden Lindstrom, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft, had surgery on Tuesday, according to general manager Don Waddell, to remedy a back injury that has plagued the 18-year-old center for most of the last year.
Lindstrom has been skating away from the rest of the Blue Jackets in Nationwide Arena for the past month or so, hoping that patience and regular treatment from the medical staff would allow the injury to heal on its own, avoiding surgery.
“He’s been working and doing everything we’ve asked of him,” Waddell said. “But he’s gotten to a point where he can’t get to 100 percent. He’s 90 percent or so, and so our doctors recommended that he have the procedure. They performed it (on Tuesday).”
Per Waddell, doctors performed a microdiscectomy on Lindstrom’s lower back, which has plagued him since the middle of last season when he played with Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League. A herniated disc can lead to pain and numbness in the legs and extremities, though it’s unclear what Lindstrom was experiencing.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine’s website, the procedure is minimally invasive and involves removing some or all of a bulging disc. In Lindstorm’s case, judging by Waddell’s words, only a portion of the disc was removed
“This was a tiny, little fragment they saw on the (magnetic resonance imaging) that they had to shave off,” Waddell said. “It was a very short procedure and everything went well. What they saw (in surgery) is exactly what they thought they would see (after the MRI).”
Lindstrom’s agent, Daren Hermiston, wasn’t immediately available to comment.
The expectation, Waddell said, is that Lindstrom will fully recover and, hopefully, play again this season. When he’s medically cleared, he’ll be sent back to Medicine Hat for a third season of major junior.
“(Doctors) will make him sit and not do a whole lot for 30 days,” Waddell said. “And he’ll continue to do his recovery here in Columbus.”
The Blue Jackets knew of Lindstrom’s injury last summer before the draft. Every NHL club that interviewed Lindstrom leading up to the draft asked him about it, and Hermiston turned over Lindstrom’s medical reports to any club that requested them.
Waddell had the Blue Jackets’ medical staff review Lindstrom’s records, he said, before he decided to spend a first-round pick — his first pick as Blue Jackets GM — on the player. At the time, however, the Blue Jackets thought Lindstrom’s injury could heal without surgery.
“To (Lindstrom’s) credit, he wanted to try and work through it,” Waddell said. “Our doctors were good with that.”
But in the five months since, Lindstrom has experienced only partial success.
“When we met last week and talked about it, he wanted to make sure he talked with his family and representation first to make sure everybody was 100 percent on board,” Waddell said. “He was in good spirits.”
(Photo of Cayden Lindstrom: Jeff Speer / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
