Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Who Could Surprise at Training Camp

Otto Leskinen

The Canadiens blue line, especially the left side of the blue line, has plenty of NHL caliber options. Ben Chiarot and Joel Edmundson are likely to slot into the top two pairings. The third pairing should go to Brett Kulak, but he has plenty of competition from Victor Mete and Alexander Romanov.

It would take a heck of an effort for someone else make the roster out of training camp, but if anyone is going to do it, that would be Otto Leskinen.

The Finnish defenceman was signed to a two-year entry-level contract in May of 2019. The now 23 year old had played three seasons in Liiga for Kalpa Kuopio before signing with the Habs. His best season in Finland’s top league came in 2018-19 when he scored 31 points in 57 games.

Last season, he suited up for 52 games with the Laval Rocket, scoring a pair of goals and 22 points. He was also called up to make his NHL debut when injuries were piling up for the Canadiens and he would play five games for the Habs before being sent back down.

Leskinen is a smart two-way defender who has four seasons of pro hockey under his belt. Also working in his favour as the Canadiens players take to the ice for this first time today is he has been playing pro hockey in Finland already this season as well. Leskinen scored ten points in 17 games in Liiga while most other defencemen competing for jobs in camp haven’t played since August, and have only played a handful of games since March.

It would take a whale of a training camp for Leskinen to make the NHL roster, but his cap hit is exactly half of Kulak’s this season and the Canadiens are a few dollars over the salary cap at the moment. If Leskinen looks better than Kulak in camp, the Habs could elect to save money by moving Kulak and keeping Leskinen in the NHL.