It was a game tailor made for Artturi Lehkonen, with his Montreal Canadiens needing to lock down a one-goal lead for more than a period on the road.
The Finn was depended on to help shut down the opposition’s best players. There Lehkonen was to the right of Rem Pitlick and Jake Evans, up against Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle for most the night, with his feet in perpetual motion and his stick constantly in the way.
As a line, they held the 12-8 shot-attempt advantage at 5-on-5 against all Senators, according to naturalstattrick.com. On his own, Lehkonen was a menace on the forecheck, a force on the backcheck, a key cog on a penalty kill that kept the Ottawa Senators to one goal on four attempts, and the main reason the Canadiens stepped off the ice at Canadian Tire Centre having notched their fifth consecutive win.
He scored Montreal’s first goal at 16:47 of the first period, and he potted their only other one just under 13 minutes after Colin White tied the game 1-1 in the second period.
They were goals eight and nine and points 21 and 22 in Lehkonen’s 50th game of the season, and he deserved them.
“He plays the right way. He’s a guy who takes care of the team, I can’t stop saying it,” responded Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis when he was asked afterwards about Lehkonen. “Defensively, he’s an excellent hockey player. Offensively, he sees the game.
“And it’s fun to see a player like that rewarded with some goals, because it gives him confidence. Players like Lehkonen never try to cheat offensively without taking care of the defensive side, so it’s fun when they get rewarded for that with confidence and a sense of value.”
So, why trade him?
That’s the question many Canadiens fans are asking at the moment, with the NHL’s deadline coming on Mar. 21 and Lehkonen’s name vaulting to the top of the list of players likely to find a new home between now and then. It’s a legitimate question to be asking as management hopes to build the Canadiens into a young, skilled, fast, hard-working and in-your-face team.
Lehkonen fits naturally into that equation. And if money were no object, he would be guaranteed a new contract in Montreal.
But with the salary cap stagnant—it may or may not increase by a million dollars this off-season and likely won’t budge much more over the next couple of years—re-signing him to the deal he’s earning just doesn’t make much sense. He’s arbitration-eligible, a year away from unrestricted free agency, looking at least a million dollars more per season on his $2.3-million salary, and the Canadiens are already paying too much for middle/bottom-six forwards Joel Armia and Paul Byron, who each make $3.4 million on deals with term and likely won’t be traded for pennies on the dollar between now and next fall.
With versatile forward Jesse Ylönen maturing in the AHL—and with 24-year-old Pitlick and 26-year-old Laurent Dauphin proving to be serviceable 200-foot players who are up for new contracts that likely won’t combine to cost as much as Lehkonen’s will next year—trading the Finn is that much more viable.
But what makes it most viable is the value Lehkonen currently holds on the trade market, with several teams interested in adding him before 3:00 p.m. ET on deadline day.
If seeing Lehkonen pop a couple of goals on this night made the Montreal faithful lament the thought of him playing for someone else, it also probably made his suitors all the more enticed by the thought of acquiring him.
Goals haven’t come as often as the 26-year-old would have liked—or as anyone watching him would’ve expected—over his 388 games in the NHL. Lehkonen first arrived on this stage in 2016, just months after breaking Daniel Alfredsson’s playoff scoring record with the Swedish Hockey League’s Frolunda Indians. He scored his first-ever goal against the Senators, and it was one of 18 he notched in 73 games before posting two goals and four points in his first six Stanley Cup Playoff games.
It was widely thought that the former second-round pick would build on that, with all the details in his game making him a scoring-chance generator of the first order. But Lehkonen topping out at 13 goals in a season since put a dent in that hope.
Still, while he may only be on pace for 15 goals in 82 games this season, he’s only nine points off his career high and trending towards setting a new one well before the playoffs start.
Granted, offence isn’t the main selling point of Lehkonen’s game.
But add it to his complete profile—and his proven history of elevating his game in the playoffs—and the Canadiens are looking at the potential opportunity to redeem either a first-round pick or a high-end prospect in a trade over the coming weeks.
Whether another team is willing to pay as much—like the two-time Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning did for Lehkonen-types Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow in 2020—is debatable.
But any team with aspirations to go far in these playoffs had to be watching Lehkonen’s performance against the Senators on Saturday and thinking it would be worth it. Especially one that isn’t paying too much for middle/bottom-six forwards and will happily take advantage of Lehkonen being under team control for one more season.
He was the best player on the ice in a playoff-style game, and surely Canadiens fans weren’t the only ones who appreciated it.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Alysha Newman was initially disappointed when her historic season, marked by an Olympic medal and record-breaking performances, came to a close.
The 30-year-old from Delaware, Ont., finished third in the Diamond League final on Saturday, clearing 4.80 metres in the women’s pole vault. That capped a campaign where Newman overcame an ankle injury late in the indoor season to win Olympic bronze.
“The first emotion I had was I was kind of sad,” she said. “With the injury that happened in March, I felt like I was two, maybe four weeks, I guess, behind everyone. So I was still really motivated to compete.
“I know the world rankings came out (Wednesday) and I was second, so my coaches texted me this morning and said, ‘highest finish ever of all time, you deserve a great break.’ And that just made me really excited.”
Newman enjoyed consistency heading into the Paris Games, clearing 4.75 metres or more in three of her last four meets after returning from injury.
Heading into Paris, Newman held the Canadian record of 4.83 metres, achieved indoors on Feb. 22. Her outdoor best was 4.82 metres, set in 2019—the last time she finished a season ranked in the top five, at No. 3.
Before this year, Newman had never medalled on the world or Olympic stage, but she reset her national record to 4.85 metres in Paris to become the first Canadian woman to medal in pole vault at the Games.
Only William Halpenny (bronze at the 1912 Stockholm Games) and Edward Archibald (bronze at the 1908 London Games) had medalled for Canada in pole vault before Newman.
“I was just telling my mom last night … I’m doing so many things, and I haven’t been able to sit. But I did go to Nice three days after I got my medal, and I sat and kind of just enjoyed having that medal and more so what it took to get that,” Newman said.
“Felt like a diploma. It felt like a reward that, you know, here’s hardware for your hard work, and it really was rewarding for me to sit in the moment.”
Newman called it “one of the most unforgettable seasons I’ll ever have in my career.”
“A part of me feels that I needed a season like this to take it even more serious, leading into (the 2028) L.A. (Olympics),” she said. “I think it shows me that this is where my life is supposed to be. I am supposed to be this incredible textbook pole vaulter.”
Newman now has motivation beyond just winning medals; she believes she can break the world record of 5.06 metres set by Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva in 2009.
Outside of competition, Newman is dedicated to helping the next generation of athletes, from raising funds for a high-performance facility in Caledon, Ont., to advocating for better resources and pay in her sport.
“Leading into L.A., I really want to make noise in the sport on helping amateur athletes get paid,” said Newman, who famously supplements her income with an OnlyFans account. “I think we underestimate what we put our bodies through and a lot of us do this for free, but it’s not free.”
“Starting with building the facility to get more athletes to qualify for the Olympics would be my No. 1 goal. And then after that is really having movement and words that will start, you know, getting people more on board and agree for us to get paid better.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
