Artturi Lehkonen

Artturi Lehkonen (born 4 July 1995) is a Finnish professional ice hockey player playing for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL). Lehkonen was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round (55th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, where he spent the first six seasons of his NHL career.

Artturi Lehkonen
Lehkonen with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021
Born (1995-07-04) 4 July 1995
Piikkiö, Finland
Height 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight 178 lb (81 kg; 12 st 10 lb)
Position Left wing
Shoots Left
NHL team
Former teams		 Colorado Avalanche
TPS
KalPa
Frölunda HC
Montreal Canadiens
NHL Draft 55th overall, 2013
Montreal Canadiens
Playing career 2011–present

Playing career

Lehkonen was born in Piikkiö, but grew up in Turku. He played for TuTo and TPS as a youngster and logged his first minutes in Finland's top-flight Liiga for TPS during the 2011–12 season. He then joined fellow Liiga outfit KalPa prior to the 2012–13 campaign.[1]

On 28 March 2014, Lehkonen opted to leave KalPa of the Finnish Liiga and further his development in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), in signing a two-year contract with Frölunda HC.[2] In his second year in Sweden, the 2015–16 season, he made 49 SHL appearances, tallying 16 goals and 17 assists in the regular season plus 16 games in postseason play with a league-best eleven goals and eight assists en route to claiming the title. The 19 points tallied beat Daniel Alfredsson 2004–05 playoffs performance (18pts) to establish a new team record for most points in a single playoff year. He was also influential in winning the Champions Hockey League that season, chipping in with twelve points (five goals, seven assists) in 13 outings.[3]

Montreal Canadiens

Lehkonen signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL) on 8 May 2016.[4] In his debut season with the team, he scored 18 goals across 73 games, with an additional 10 assists. He would manage 12 goals and 9 assists the following season. On 3 October 2018, Lehkonen scored the Canadiens' first goal of the 2018–19 season in a 3–2 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.[5] He would have a career-best 31 points in the final year of his entry-level contract. On 11 July 2019, the Canadiens re-signed Lehkonen to a two-year, $4.8 million contract extension.[6]

Lehkonen managed only 7 goals and 6 assists during the pandemic-shortened 2020–21 season. The Canadiens qualified to the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs in the final wildcard spot, and embarked on an unexpectedly deep run, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets in the first two rounds. On 24 June 2021, Lehkonen scored in the overtime period in game six of the Stanley Cup Semifinals against the Vegas Golden Knights, allowing the Canadiens to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1993.[7] Following the team's loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Finals, the Canadiens re-signed Lehkonen to a one-year, $2.3 million contract extension.[8]

Following the Finals appearance, the 2021–22 season saw the Canadiens perform historically poorly, resulting in the sacking of longtime general manager Marc Bergevin. At a time when most of the team's roster was judged to be underperforming, Lehkonen's strong defensive play attracted praise, and began to generate speculation that he would be traded as part of a team rebuild.[9][10]

Colorado Avalanche

On March 21, 2022, Lehkonen was traded by the Canadiens to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Justin Barron and a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.[11]

International play
Medal record
Representing Finland
IIHF World U18 Championships
2013 Russia
World Junior Championships
2014 Malmö

Lehkonen made his debut with Finland's men's national team during the 2015–16 Euro Hockey Tour.[12]

Personal life

Lehkonen's father is Ismo Lehkonen, a former professional hockey player and coach.[13]

Lehkonen is a supporter of Arsenal F.C.[14]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2010–11 TPS Jr. A 2 0 1 1 0 — — — — —
2011–12 TPS Jr. A 40 28 26 54 54 — — — — —
2011–12 TPS SM-l 18 2 2 4 8 2 0 0 0 0
2012–13 KalPa SM-l 45 14 16 30 12 4 2 1 3 2
2013–14 KalPa Liiga 33 7 13 20 4 — — — — —
2014–15 Frölunda HC SHL 47 8 8 16 12 13 3 3 6 0
2015–16 Frölunda HC SHL 49 16 17 33 12 16 11 8 19 4
2016–17 Montreal Canadiens NHL 73 18 10 28 8 6 2 2 4 2
2017–18 Montreal Canadiens NHL 66 12 9 21 20 — — — — —
2018–19 Montreal Canadiens NHL 82 11 20 31 32 — — — — —
2019–20 Montreal Canadiens NHL 70 13 14 27 24 10 1 3 4 8
2020–21 Montreal Canadiens NHL 47 7 6 13 6 17 3 1 4 4
2021–22 Montreal Canadiens NHL 58 13 16 29 14 — — — — —
2021–22 Colorado Avalanche NHL 16 6 3 9 8
Liiga totals 96 23 31 54 24 6 2 1 3 2
SHL totals 96 24 25 49 24 29 14 11 25 4
NHL totals 412 80 78 158 112 33 6 6 12 14

International
Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM
2011 Finland U17 7th 5 1 1 2 0
2011 Finland IH18 4th 5 2 3 5 4
2012 Finland WJC18 4th 7 7 3 10 6
2013 Finland WJC18 7 3 6 9 12
2013 Finland WJC 7th 6 3 1 4 4
2014 Finland WJC 6 2 2 4 2
2015 Finland WJC 7th 5 1 0 1 6
Junior totals 41 19 16 35 34

Awards and honors
AwardYearRef
SHL
Le Mat Trophy (Frölunda HC) 2016 [15]
CHL
Champions (Frölunda HC) 2016

References
  1. "Uutiset - Hyökkääjät Antti Kerälä ja Artturi Lehkonen KalPaan kahden vuoden sopimuksilla". www.kalpa.fi. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  2. "World Junior Champion Lehkonen to Frolunda". Frölunda HC. 28 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  3. "Statistics | Champions Hockey League". www.championshockeyleague.net. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  4. "Canadiens agree to terms on a three-year contract with forward Artturi Lehkonen". canadiens.nhl.com. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  5. "MTL@TOR: A determined bunch". NHL.com. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  6. Cowan, Stu (11 July 2019). "Canadiens sign Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Armia to two-year contracts". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  7. "Canadiens advance to Stanley Cup Final after defeating Golden Knights in Game 6 - Sportsnet.ca". www.sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  8. "Canadiens sign Artturi Lehkonen to one-year, $2.3M contract extension". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  9. Yost, Travis (23 December 2021). "Lehkonen putting on a defensive clinic for struggling Habs". TSN.ca. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  10. Basu, Arpon; Godin, Marc Antoine (24 January 2022). "Lehkonen boosts trade value, Canadiens front office candidates, the Logan Mailloux dilemma". The Athletic. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  11. "Avs acquire Lehkonen from Canadiens". The Sports Network. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  12. "Otteluseuranta: Ruotsi - Suomi 11.02.2016 (Euro Hockey Tour)". Tappara.co. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  13. Matt Cudzinowski (16 October 2018). "Sincere gratitude". NHL.com. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  14. Matt Cudzinowski; Steven Nechay (18 August 2018). "Starstruck: Artturi Lehkonen on Bacary Sagna". Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  15. "Frolunda Swedish champions for 2015/16" (in Swedish). norran.se. 24 April 2016. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
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