Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced on Sunday that defenseman Hampus Lindholm is unlikely to return for the rest of the season due to a knee injury. Sweeney said the defenseman is expected to have a follow-up exam next week to remove some of the hardware that caused irritation during rehab.

Lindholm, 31, has not played since mid-November after fracturing his patella which required surgery; he sustained the injury after blocking a shot from St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk in the first period of a game on Nov. 12.  Sweeney said: “As everybody knows he [Lindholm] had a significant knee injury, fractured his patella, had surgery. There was no real definitive timeline, and we were pretty open about that and we didn’t want to peg a timeline on it because of the complexity of the injury. He’s going to have a follow-up next week to remove a little bit of the hardware because it’s created some irritation as he’s going through the rehab. Again, the healing process has gone long, gone well and he’ll have no setbacks moving forward. That being said, it’s going to take a little more time to heal naturally and we don’t want to put a timeline on when he’ll be back to 100 percent.”

Lindholm is in the third season of an eight-year, $52 million contract extension he signed with the Bruins in March of 2022.  Hehad three goals and seven points in 17 games with Boston while averaging 20:51 minutes of ice time before sustaining the injury.

The sixth overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft by the Anaheim Ducks, Lindholm was traded to Boston on March 19, 2022 in exchange for a first-round pick, two second-round selections, and defencemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore. An All-Star in 2022-23, Lindholm has 313 points (73 goals, 240 assists) and a plus-147 rating in 762 career games with the Bruins and Anaheim Ducks (2013-22).

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