Artturi Lehkonen is in a different situation than either Weise or Scandella are. After being drafted in the second round in 2013, he broke into the league as a sniper in 2016-17, scoring 18 goals and tallying 10 assists in 73 games as a rookie.
Since then, the Canadiens’ fan base has gotten used to two main things concerning the Finnish winger: his defensive acumen/penalty-killing prowess and his ability to miss the vast majority of golden scoring opportunities he carved for himself.
The latter becomes infuriating to watch after he rifles his third breakaway attempt of the game into the safety netting. The former, however, has allowed him to become a swiss-army knife type player who can get the job done in a middle-six role with heaps of minutes on the penalty kill.
While Lehkonen’s defensive ability has consistently grown since his entrance to the league, it felt as though his offensive ability suffered as a result with every passing season, essentially making way for the defensive skillset. That changed this season, however, with Lehkonen on pace to break his point-total record of 31 – which he set last season – by a fair margin (7 points to be exact). He has already matched his goal tally from last season (11) and is on pace to match the career-high 18 he scored as a rookie.
It’s nice to see Lehkonen continue to grow offensively while maintaining his excellent defensive ability. This season makes me hopeful that he can grow into a consistent 20 goal, 40 point player, which is much more than I had expected at the end of last season. As Phil Danault would say: “Good stick, Lehky!”