Oskar Lindblom plans to join the Philadelphia Flyers in the Toronto bubble on Friday, the forward told a Swedish media outlet.
Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, and finished his treatment on July 2. The 23-year-old last played with the Flyers on Dec. 7.
“I’m going to Toronto on Friday and join the rest of the team,” Lindblom told Gefle Dagblad on Tuesday. “We will see how it goes. I feel that my conditioning is getting better and better each day. We are in the playoffs and right now we are playing games to determine our seed.
“It’s fantastic being back on the ice after all that’s happened.”
Six months ago, Oskar Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma.
Today, he was back on the ice with the @NHLFlyers. #OskarStrong pic.twitter.com/2AyR4gVlWI
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 23, 2020
Lindblom signed a three-year, $9-million contract last month. He was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after the 2019-20 season.
The Swedish forward was off to a hot start to the season with 11 goals and 18 points in 30 games before being shut down in December.
“When Oskar was diagnosed with cancer, I had numerous talks with our doctors about, ‘Is there a chance I could get him back for the playoffs?’ Obviously the answer was no, he wouldn’t,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault told reporters Wednesday. “But come next training camp in September he should be back if everything went the way they thought, and things have gone the way they thought.
“This year, with the stoppage in play and the COVID factor, the season has been stretched out and September is a less than a month away. So I was told come training camp he’d be able to play in September so I guess we have to get to September.”
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