A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: If Tomas Tatar is Dealt, Who Would Replace Him on Habs Top Line?

By Ken MacMillan

MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 05: Tomas Tatar #90 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a victory against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre on November 5, 2019 in Montreal, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins 5-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 05: Tomas Tatar #90 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a victory against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre on November 5, 2019 in Montreal, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins 5-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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DETROIT, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 07: Artturi Lehkonen #62  (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 07: Artturi Lehkonen #62  (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Artturi Lehkonen

Artturi Lehkonen is in his fourth season with the Canadiens but it is still difficult to decide what type of player he is going to be long term. He is a smart, defensively sound winger. He shows bursts of offence that make you believe he is an ideal top six winger but then follows that up with long scoring droughts that make you think he is a penalty killing specialist.

One sure way to find out if he can score at a consistent rate would be to give him Danault and Gallagher as linemates and see what he can do. He has 12 goals and 25 points in 62 games this season so he is scoring at less than half of a point per game pace but it would be interesting to see what he can bring that up to given a consistent top six role.

Lehkonen has often been placed in a top six role for a short period of time. He seems to have different linemates every second game and is switching back and forth between left and right wing. A little consistency could go a long way for the 24 year old. Lehkonen had a career high 18 goals as a rookie and his 31 points last season was his best season to date.

Putting him with Danault and Gallagher would ensure the line remains just as good, if not better defensively. There is no question it would be a step down offensively as Tatar currently has 54 points and Lehkonen has 25. I’m sure he would close that gap considerably if he were playing with Danault and Gallagher consistently. Lehkonen could make this line an even better shutdown line and also chip in close to 20 goals and 45-50 points.

If Tatar is traded in the next few days, I think it would make a lot of sense to give Lehkonen a chance to play on that line for the final two months to see if he can bring a bit more offence while being his normal puck stealing, battle winning, shutdown winger.

If Lehkonen doesn’t work out to end the year, perhaps the Habs could dip into the free agent pool to find a better replacement.

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