Montreal Canadiens Winger Artturi Lehkonen Needs AHL Seasoning
The Montreal Canadiens have a great offensive prospect in Artturi Lehkonen. He isn’t scoring much at the NHL level, and needs a bit of minor league seasoning.
The Montreal Canadiens had a pleasant surprise on their hands in training camp. Artturi Lehkonen came in and played well all preseason, earning a spot in the Habs top six. Though he began the year there, his offence needs to increase if he wants to stay with the Canadiens.
The 21 year old winger started the season on the second line with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Radulov. The trio failed to create much offence together and not Lehkonen finds himself playing a third line role.
Lehkonen is joined by Plekanec on that third line with Paul Byron. It is a solid defensive line, but again, they aren’t brining much offence to the table. Lehkonen has lost his spot in the top six to newcomer Andrew Shaw. Shaw is lining up with Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais on the second unit.
Lehkonen, a Finnish winger is playing okay in his first stint in the National Hockey League. The problem is, Montreal is not getting a lot of offence from their top nine, and may need a bit of a shakeup to get things rolling offensively.
Canadiens in need of more depth scoring
Most of the Canadiens offence is coming from the first line of Radulov with Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher. The next best offensive line is actually the fourth line of Torrey Mitchell with Philip Danault and Brian Flynn.
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The middle six is struggling to score goals. That is what Lehkonen made the team to do. If he is not scoring, he should be in the minors where he can find his offensive game.
Lehkonen started the year with two goals in his first four games. Since then, he has no goals just one assist in his last six contests. His ice time is dropping off as well. Lehkonen played more than fifteen minutes in three straight games earlier in the season.
However, he played just 10:37 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night and 13:29 against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. If he is going to be one of the least used forwards, he may as well be playing an offensive role for the St. John’s Ice Caps.
Canadiens have many young options that could replace Lehkonen
The Canadiens have made a few call ups already, perhaps in an effort to change things up. Daniel Carr was brought back to the NHL level. Though he was a healthy scratch against the Canucks, Carr is a feisty winger who can score goals. He might be just what the doctor ordered to infuse some scoring punch to this team.
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If Carr is going to get in the lineup, it may be Lehkonen who is on the outside looking in during the game. With just three points in ten games, and making the team because of his offensive play, Lehkonen needs to go to the minors to find his offensive game again.
He has a great shot, and solid offensive instincts. He is the type of player that could turn into a great goal scorer in this league. As a rookie playing his first year in North America, he doesn’t quite have all the tools together just now to start finding the back of the net.
Charles Hudon and Nikita Scherbak are scoring plenty of goals in the American Hockey League right now. While they are hot, it makes sense to bring one or both of them up to play a top nine role for the Canadiens.
While they are up, it would make sense to let Lehkonen replace them in the Ice Caps lineup. It may only be for a month or even less, but Lehkonen needs to play an offensive role. He isn’t bringing it consistently enough to play that role with the Canadiens. However, he could be playing that role with the Ice Caps and it would help him develop into a better NHL player in the future.
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