The Sunday Read: Inside Hampus Lindholm’s Recovery Journey

BOSTON –– Scott Waugh watches the Boston Bruins’ practices with a close eye.

Hampus Lindholm has been at the center of Waugh’s observations and notes over the last year since the defenseman fractured his patella in November. As the team’s Manager of Player Rehabilitation, Waugh and the Bruins’ training staff – including Dustin Stuck, Joe Robinson, Chris Porter and Andrea Fortunati – have worked to get Lindholm ready for the 2025-26 season.

The continued analysis of Lindholm’s stride and power has informed his route of care.

“When we look at skating, it’s very technical – how low is he, how long is he, how is he pivoting? There are a lot of layers to this that, when he comes back, we evaluate because we’re looking for gaps,” Waugh said. “We’re looking for things that aren’t quite perfect because we know what he looked like pre-injury. Our goal is to get him to that and better.”

The plan worked for Lindholm, who is participating in training camp with no restrictions and is set to enter the year at 100 percent health.

But the journey to this point was not easy.

Lindholm underwent the first surgery to repair his knee in November and hit a setback around February when he had to get a procedure to remove one of the inserted screws that had caused irritation. It officially sidelined him for the rest of the Bruins’ season. Lindholm played 17 games – and had seven points (three goals, four assists) – before the injury.

“It’s frustrating when you can’t help out. I’m a hockey player – I want to be on the ice and help the fellas out. Obviously, it was tough, but I learned a lot,” Lindholm said. “There’s stuff you can learn from being on the sidelines. I always try to improve, especially when you are injured. Even if you can’t do one thing, you can do something else to try to improve.”

Preserving Lindholm’s leg muscle was an immediate priority for Waugh following the surgery. The break in Lindhom’s kneecap put “dry land” and conventional strength training off limits. So, Waugh turned to water to lighten the affected area while still allowing Lindholm to move.

“We do a lot of pool and water work with guys, so we can get people running on a treadmill underwater where they’re moving and grooving and working on conditioning and strengthening. But we’re minimizing the load to the injury because of what you get from the buoyancy of water,” Waugh, who first joined the Bruins organization in the early 1990s, said.

“If you don’t, a big, large, strong guy like that – if you have an injury where you’re not working out for many months – you can sometimes lose half the mass of muscle in your leg. So part of the early rehab process is to maintain while things are healing. You are trying to create the best set of conditions to then build on once things are healed enough to really escalate his training.”

Along with the pool sessions and physical therapy, Lindholm wanted to keep his hands fresh while at home. He got a plastic ice sheet that he could stickhandle on whenever he wanted to keep his hockey sense intact.

“Even if I couldn’t play hockey, I could kind of feel like a hockey player at home. Did a lot of stuff like that to work on my hands and find ways to improve that part of the game,” Lindholm said. “That was a funny thing – people probably didn’t see me standing with my little, almost crutches, but still be able to stick handle.”

Lindholm eventually started skating again in June. The 31-year-old went back to his home country of Sweden for the summer and also worked with trainer Igor Vladimir, whom he knew from the National Team, he said. It all helped ensure that Lindholm could fully compete come September.

The veteran’s impact has been immediately felt at Bruins training camp this month. Lindholm is back skating on a pair with Andrew Peeke and practicing on the second power play unit.

“He definitely was missed last year. Obviously, his presence on the ice speaks for itself,” Peeke said. “He’s an all-world defenseman, he can do pretty much everything out there – defensively, offensively, transitionally. But in the room, too, he’s a leader. He’s always there for guys, just a good guy to have around on a daily basis. That speaks volumes.”

Head coach Marco Sturm has quickly given important responsibility to Lindholm, who averaged 20:51 of ice time per game last season. For the Bruins to be successful this season, Sturm knows that having Lindholm be a stable top-four stalwart will be key.

“I knew Hampus out of Anaheim, I knew how good he is,” Sturm said. “He shows us again. It’s really exciting for not just me, but for the whole team that he is back. And how important it is to have him back in the lineup.”

At one point in time, the prospect of being in the Bruins’ lineup felt like far out of reach for Lindholm. The mental strength needed to get through the rehabilitation was half the battle. But Lindholm consistently reminded himself of what it was all for. And, on Saturday, he skated in his first game since November. Lindholm was on the first pair with Henri Jokiharju against the Philadelphia Flyers and had two shots through 21:21 of ice time.

“It is hard, but the reward is in the work you put in. That’s how I try to approach it,” Lindholm said. “If you put in a lot of work, do the right things and do the boring things you might not want to do that day, it is going to be rewarding down the line. You don’t know exactly when it will be rewarding you, but it’s going to come back sooner or later.”

Waugh and his team take a certain pride in Lindholm’s return, too. The hours, weeks and months of work away from the ice have finally paid off for everyone involved.

“He looks fantastic. All of those little layers that we looked at, he looks great,” Waugh said. “He had an injury that can really be catastrophic to someone’s career. So, to pause and navigate that medically, clinically, performance-wise – to navigate that process and for us to get to where he is now, it is a great check on the box. We did it right.”