More players from the Montreal Canadiens are being considered for a spot at the World Hockey Championships in Denmark including Artturi Lehkonen.
The IIHF has already started calling players from the Montreal Canadiens to take part in this summer’s tournament in Denmark. The World Hockey Championships are usually a good way to add some positivity to a player’s year, assuming they do well and gain confidence for themselves. A playoff spot would be better obviously, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a medal among your countrymen.
We’ve already heard the likes of Carey Price and Brendan Gallagher decline their invitations to play at the Worlds, and for good reason. Jonathan Drouin has spoken about the opportunity saying that he would go if offered a spot on Team Canada. The latest player on the Montreal Canadiens to speak out about the tournament was Artturi Lehkonen.
Eric Engels tweeted out some thoughts from the Finland native, including his desire to play. However, he also mentioned that it had been a rough year for him with injuries.
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Lehkonen’s back has been a problem this season which got so bad that it kept him out of the lineup for 16 games. It affected his ability to score dramatically, but the 22-year-old has found the back of the net a lot more now than in January.
Similar to Gallagher’s situation, if Lehkonen isn’t feeling 100% and needs to take the time to rest, he should. Many believed that the 2013 second-round pick would improve on his scoring totals from the year before and possibly have his first career 20-goal season. Unfortunately, other things besides Lehkonen’s injury has kept him doing that.
It’ll be an important season for him to get his body ready for training camp and a hopeful bounce back year offensively.
Next: Stakes in the Draft Lottery Race
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