CALGARY — At the 2012 draft, Hampus Lindholm told a bit of a macabre joke about his parents. His father owns a Swedish funeral home and his mother works with the elderly, and he came up with a line about Mom always having Dad’s business card at the ready.
“It’s a bad joke,” he admits. “But you know the draft, everyone is tense. I kind of loosened things up a bit.”
That he shares this with you on an off day in Anaheim’s playoff series with the Calgary Flames is a window into a 20-year-old who is calm beyond his years, a franchise defenceman who today would go first overall — sorry, Jacob Trouba — if they re-drew the draft headed by No. 1 pick Nail Yakupov, No. 2 Ryan Murray and No. 3 Alex Galchenyuk.
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS: | Broadcast Schedule
Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE | Stanley Cup Playoffs Fantasy Hockey
New Sportsnet app: iTunes | Google Play
Lindholm is tall and charismatic, with Swedish good looks. He is smart and a compelling conversationalist — the latter not altogether common among today’s prospects, who often have little to say when the topic strays from the game. We talked skiing, a sport he’s put on the backburner, after Lindholm and the Ducks got off the bus following two days spent in the Alberta mountain panacea of Banff.
“He’s a little loopy at times,” laughs fellow blue-liner Cam Fowler. “He’s so young, such a fun-loving kid, I don’t think he really realizes what he’s doing. He comes to the rink, he plays hockey, he loves the game, but I don’t think he really realizes how good he is and how important he is to your team.”
Lindholm may make you laugh in the hotel lobby, but on the ice the GMs who drafted Murray, Griffin Reinhart and Morgan Rielly ahead of Lindholm, who went sixth, have to be crying themselves to sleep at night when they watch this kid play.
At 21, he has the defending part of his job description nearly mastered. He doesn’t get beaten one-on-one, and watch how many shots he deflects with his stick alone. It is the kind of hand-eye borne of God-given talents, and the smarts to have already figured out where to be and when.
With that, and a steady partner in gritty veteran Francois Beauchemin, Lindholm has begun to make progress on the offensive part of the game. When to jump up with the forwards; how to play in the offensive zone so the result isn’t an odd-man rush going the other way.
“I was fortunate that when I was 12, 13, I got to play with kids who were two years older,” he said. “So, when you are two years younger you’re usually smaller, and you have to be smarter. I played pro at 17, and that (experience) really helped me. Kenny Jonsson was my D coach, and he was really good to me.”
Remember Kenny Jonsson, Toronto’s 12th overall pick in 1993? His second division Swedish club team — Rogle BK — was Lindholm’s team also, and Jonsson has clearly passed along much of his poise. Lindholm has two 30-point seasons under his belt already, and has six points in seven playoff games this spring.
The pairing with Beauchemin marks some of coach Bruce Boudreau’s finest work, invented, as it turns out, of necessity.
“We thought Hampus was going to get killed because he’d have his head down coming around the net and someone was just going to clock him,” Boudreau said. “Beauch is a guy that makes people aware out there. He’s always talking.”
Beauchemin is a wise defender and tough lefty, who once dispensed perhaps the most one-sided loss of Jarome Iginla’s fighting career, a notch on his belt that few have claimed. “If there is any trouble, I will hide behind him for sure,” chuckled Lindholm.
Meanwhile, you won’t find another organization as well set in sub-24-year-old defencemen than the Ducks. How about this group of six: Lindholm (21), Sami Vatanen, Cam Fowler, Simon Despres, and Josh Manson — all aged 23 — and Shea Theodore, a finalist for the WHL Defencemen of the Year Award who has just now turned pro.
That’s a blue-line that has Anaheim set for the next decade. Credit there goes to chief amateur scout Martin Madden and GM Bob Murray, who learned a thing or two about defence during his 1,008 NHL games, all in a Chicago Blackhawks uniform.
“We had the one bad year (missing the 2012 playoffs), and we get Hampus,” said Anaheim’s Sr. V.P. of Hockey Operations, David McNab. “Vatanen slides down, maybe because of his size, to the fourth round. Manson has developed quicker, I think, than anyone thought. Bob played with his father (Dave Manson). And Theodore, a late first-rounder, has progressed real well.
“Bob’s good with defencemen. He sees.”
It’s a list that began with Borje Salming, and included names like Nick Lidstrom, Calle Johansson, Ulf Samuelsson and Mattias Ohlund. Today, Erik Karlsson is an annual Norris Trophy candidate in Ottawa, and Victor Hedman is becoming a star in Tampa.
Lindholm is the next of this group, and the best on a blue-line that will power the Ducks for years and years to come.
