Montreal Canadiens: Signing Mikko Lehtonen Would Fill Huge Void On Habs Roster

The Montreal Canadiens have several needs to fill on their roster. One transaction that would help would be signing Finnish defenceman Mikko Lehtonen.

The Montreal Canadiens were well on their way to missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season when the NHL hit the pause button in March. There are various reasons a team would miss the playoffs for three straight campaigns, so there isn’t just one hole that needs to be filled in the construction of the Habs roster.

However, perhaps the biggest void that needs to be fixed is on left defence. A couple of summers ago, Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin chose not to re-sign Andrei Markov, traded Nathan Beaulieu and Mikhail Sergachev and lost Alexei Emelin to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.

Replacing their entire depth chart of left defencemen wouldn’t be easy. Trying to do it by signing Karl Alzner, Mark Streit, Joe Morrow, David Schlemko and Jakub Jerabek just compounded the problem.

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That was three years ago, but the biggest problem on the Habs roster since that time has been the construction of their left defence. They have tried the likes of Jordie Benn, Brett Kulak and Victor Mete on the top pairing because they had no other choices, but none of them are capable of handling that role. At least not yet in Mete’s case.

The Habs went out and signed Ben Chiarot to a three-year contract last summer. Though his $3.5 million cap hit seemed a little high at the time, he far exceeded the value of his contract in year one.

Another player that should help, though we don’t know how much just yet, is Alexander Romanov. The Russian defender is expected to sign with the Habs any day now and should be on the NHL roster when we next see the Canadiens in action. Is he a top pairing guy right now? Likely not. Can he help out on the third pairing right away? Almost definitely.

So, heading into next season, the Habs have Chiarot, Romanov, Mete and Kulak on the left side. It’s not a terrible group and continues to get better every year as they add new components. However, a little more insurance would go a long way.

The Canadiens could add to their depth on left defence by signing Mikko Lehtonen. The Finnish left defenceman just became a free agent as his contract with the KHL’s Jokerit team has been terminated.

Lehtonen is a 26 year old offensive defenceman. He is old enough, and good enough, that he could step into an NHL lineup right away and help move the puck up ice and put up some offensive numbers. That is something the Habs really don’t have on the left side right now. Chiarot had 21 points in 69 games, Mete had 11 in 51 and Kulak had seven in 56.

Lehtonen was the highest scoring defenceman in the KHL this season with 49 points in 60 games. In fact, he was the sixth highest scorer in the entire league. There is no question he would add some scoring punch that is sorely lacking to the left side of the Habs blue line.

Lehtonen was passed over in the 2012 NHL Draft, but he isn’t exactly a late bloomer, he has just decided to not leave Europe. He seems set on moving to the National Hockey League next season.

He has represented his country on many occasions at the World Juniors, World Championships and Olympic Games. In the past three seasons, he has played in the KHL in Russia, the SHL in Sweden and Liiga in Finland. Before lighting up the KHL, he scored 24 points in 52 games for HV71 in Sweden’s top league and had 29 points in 55 games for Tappara in Finland.

Over the next few months, we will hear of lots of free agents signing out of different leagues in Europe. Lehtonen has the potential to have the biggest NHL impact of all of them. He would fill a huge void on the Habs roster by bringing offence to the left defence.

Also, he’s Finnish so if he is looking for a team with some players from his homeland, where better than Montreal who employed a “Finnish Line” of Joel Armia, Artturi Lehkonen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi at times this season?