Montreal Canadiens: Joni Ikonen having a quick offensive start to the season

Although the majority of the Montreal Canadiens prospects have played a large chunk of the season, Joni Ikonen has just gotten started.

The summer of 2018 was a summer of offseason injuries for the Montreal Canadiens. Shea Weber had his dealt with undergoing two surgeries as well as Paul Byron, Andrew Shaw, and Jake Evans who was coming off his senior year at the University of Notre Dame. But of them all, Joni Ikonen’s stood out.

The Habs 2017 second-round pick needed to have surgery on his right knee after an incident at team practice at the end of May. The recovery for it kept Ikonen out of the World Junior Summer Showcase, World Junior Hockey Championships in BC, and had him miss the first 39 games of the season.

Ikonen’s debut year with KalPa was a complete learning experience. It took the young centre a while to adjust to the competition, but he eventually started generating chances for himself and his linemates. The only issue was the lack of production putting up four goals and ten assists in 52 regular season games including a stretch of three goals in two games (remember that stat). KalPa was also fortunate to have six playoff games where Ikonen had a single assist.

It took seven months, and Ikonen is finally back. But it hasn’t been a normal return as the 19-year-old has returned in style.

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There’s always fear or concern that a knee injury will hamper a player’s growth. Sometimes it’s tough to get back to speed or look stronger when coming off something like that. And to calm the heads of the Montreal Canadiens and the fans, Ikonen has three goals in four games.

Ikonen looks stronger and is combining his speed with it. His goal against Jakurit is a prime example of that. Ikonen picked up the puck in the neutral zone and drove wide bypassing three of the opposition to head to the net. Once close to the crease, he stops and with quick hands beats the goaltender to make it 2-1 for KalPa.

One of his other tallies came on the powerplay with a rifle from the left circle.

His main strengths are clear in his foot speed, acceleration, and shot. It’s been a great start for Ikonen so far and it’ll be interesting to see where and how he finishes the regular season. According to him, the playoffs are the destination.

Whether they do or not is another mystery, but one thing we know for sure is the Montreal Canadiens should expect great things from Ikonen moving forward (Harry Potter Reference).