Oskar Lindblom is on the rise

At 1% owned, if you are in a deeper league, Oskar Lindblom is a must add. I’ll pause, go ahead and do it.

All set? Ok.

With the Flyers overcoming injury to James Van Riemsdyk, they have looked to the infusion of young talent to fill some big shoes. If Travis Konecny was the prospect to watch last year, and Nolan Patrick is on a steady improvement, Oskar is looking to make the biggest step up this year. The 138^th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Oskar made a big impression not only in the Swedish league where he posted 22 goals and 47 points in 52 games but also in the AHL where he had 16 goals and 34 points across 54 games last year. He was promoted to the Flyers late last year where he had two goals across 23 games and struggled somewhat to adapt to the big leagues.

At the beginning of this year it was a fairly similar slow start with 2 goals and no assists in his first 11 games. This changed over the last week when he was moved to the 2^nd line with Nolan Patrick and Jakub Voracek and so far, it is paying fruitful dividends for Lindblom who now has two goals and four assists in his last four games. He’s seeing more time on ice going from 12 minutes per game to 14-16 minutes and his plus minus went from -5 in October to +5 in November so far through three games. Part of this is due to the Flyers slow start where they struggled winning just four of their first 11 games before winning three of their last four.

The Flyers are flush with young talent: Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Nolan Patrick, Oskar, Shayne Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim make up 8 of the top 12 scorers in the Flyers lineup and all of them are under the age of 25. It’s fair to say that line changes are still happening with the excess of talent. Wayne Simmonds was brought down to the third line and while it can be argued that the Flyers are rolling 3-4 deep lines, there just isn’t enough ice time for all of them to make a meaningful impact. Oskar is a steal at 1% right now but his value is VERY contingent on which line he is on and how much ice time he is getting. If it dips back below 12 minute per game, it will be difficult for him to produce at a strong rate.

I imagine Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are all too happy to see all of this help joining them in the top six.