At the end of the 2018-19 season Tobias Lindberg was not given a qualifying offer by the Vegas Golden Knights, making him an unrestricted free agent. Instead of pursuing another chance in the NHL, the 24-year old forward is heading back to Sweden to play in the SHL with IK Oskarschamn. The club is joining the SHL for the first time after being promoted from the second league.
Linberg was originally selected in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, but has bounced around the league in his short career. In fact, 2018-19 saw him play for three different organizations after two trades. Amazingly that brings his trade count to five, including two stints each with the Vegas Golden Knights and Ottawa Senators. During that time Lindberg has only been given six games of NHL opportunity and is still waiting on that elusive first goal. In the AHL he has 89 points in 225 games, and admitted to SollentunaDirekt that this season was difficult because of all the transactions.
A Memorial Cup winner with the Oshawa Generals in 2015, Lindberg is a capable player at both ends of the rink but hasn’t been able to put it all together in professional hockey. He’ll try to get his career back on track in Sweden and may be a name you hear again down the road.
Difficult because of all the transactions? What does that even mean? He wasn’t traded anywhere during the season. Line mates come and go that’s part of playing in the minors.