Logan Pyett overcame a sarcoma diagnosis and is now rooting for Oskar Lindblom

Dave Isaac | NHL writer

Logan Pyett remembers the shock from four years ago that Oskar Lindblom felt a few days ago.

The Flyers announced Friday that Lindblom, the Swedish 23-year-old left wing who co-leads them in goals, has been diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare cancer found in or around the bones. The team expects he will not play for the remainder of this season, which is also the remainder of his contract.

Pyett had signed a one-year contract with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in 2015 and felt a lump in his leg during training camp. He got some treatment from the Flyers’ medical staff but thought nothing of it until he started feeling pain from what turned out to be a blood clot caused by a tumor. He was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma and missed all of that season and the next.

“I don’t remember being overwhelmed with fear or sadness at any time,” Pyett said by phone. “It was kind of like, just a shock. You don’t expect it to happen. You’ve got doctors talking to you and family is obviously worried. There was lots of support around. The Flyers organization and the team down in Lehigh, they were nothing but supportive. It’s going to be similar for Oskar.”

Lindblom’s teammates were still in shock too, speaking to reporters in Minnesota Saturday night before the team’s 4-1 loss to the Wild. The Flyers didn’t release any information about how quickly doctors think they found the sarcoma in Lindblom, only that he will start treatment potentially as soon as this week.

The tumor was found in Lindblom’s upper body somewhere — the team didn’t specify exactly where — and he will be working with doctors at the University of Pennsylvania to battle the disease like Pyett did four years ago.

“One of the first things they told me was it was a similar type of cancer as Mark Herzlich (a former linebacker for the New York Giants, who had Ewing’s sarcoma like Lindblom),” Pyett said. “They had a couple examples of younger athletes who had been diagnosed with either the same or something similar to me and they came out of it fine. That was one of the things they first told me and that was reassuring. I never once was made to feel like anything was life threatening and I never felt that way myself. When it got time for surgery, I was a little more nervous about the surgery part because the tumor was wrapped around my vein and artery in my leg and what would come out with it. You hope that the vascular side of surgery goes well and you don’t wake up missing a leg or something. That was the only time I had any fear but it wasn’t overwhelming.”

No two bodies are the same and Pyett and Lindblom have different types of sarcoma so it’s not fair to compare the two patients or their outlooks. Pyett just hopes doctors caught the tumor in Lindblom as early as they caught the one in his leg in October 2015.

He also made some pretty big lifestyle changes. Doctors told Pyett to stay away from sugar in his diet but he also completely stopped eating animal products. The plant based diet he subscribed to is something Pyett endorses.

Now 31, the defenseman is in remission. Pyett had six three-week cycles of chemotherapy before surgery to remove the tumor from his leg in May 2016. He was able to finally return to the AHL last season, playing 10 games for the Hershey Bears. He would have been able to come back sooner, but he needed another surgery because there was a second blood clot in his leg. This season he started playing in Denmark, but the team couldn’t afford his contract anymore, so they severed ties. He is now in California, hoping to find a new team to hang on with.

“Throughout the whole process I was told that this is just kind of a fluke, just kind of a rogue cell that mutates and all of a sudden you’ve got a lump in your body,” Pyett said. “Once they took it out, there’s been no other cancer in my body.”

Through it all, he said, the Flyers were a big help and he wasn’t even on an NHL contract. Ron Hextall, the Flyers' ex-general manager, kept in touch even after Pyett's contract was up.

“They obviously stayed with me ‘til the end, staying updated,” Pyett said. “I had surgery done in Philly and then shortly after that I was gone. It was the offseason and I was on a one-year deal. After that there wasn’t much going on (with recovery or treatment). I exchanged some messages with Mr. Hextall. My mom exchanged messages with him a bit. He treated us really well. The whole organization took great care of me. I can’t speak highly enough about Ron and everybody in the management in both those teams, the Flyers and the Phantoms, for everything. They never pushed me to do anything and kept me comfortable and got me good care. It would have been a lot different had I not had that support. Oskar is definitely in good hands there.

“I wish I had a little bit more information about what his situation is. That would maybe make my advice a little different. Hopefully they caught it early. I don’t know, I’m standing here today feeling fine and healthy. Chemo and the radiation stuff was OK. That stuff isn’t fun. They’re pumping a bunch of nasty crap into your body. I hope he doesn’t have to deal with as much of that stuff as I did. Hopefully his diagnosis is (good and) they caught it quick.”

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Dave Isaac joined the Courier-Post in April 2012 after covering the Flyers for three seasons elsewhere. Contact him on Twitter @davegisaac or by email at disaac@gannett.com.

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