According to a top Swedish media report, the Montreal Canadiens have reportedly signed their top European prospect, forward Artturi Lehkonen, their 2013 2nd round draft pick (55th overall).
Jag hör att Lehkonen har signat med Montreal. PM inom kort. Gör Sundström bra ifrà¥n sig i VM fà¥r han oxॠNHL-kontrakt. Guldets baksida.
— Tomas Ros (@Rosenrasande) May 7, 2016
The length of the contract is unknown but typically European prospects sign for two years. There will be an out clause that if Lehkonen does not make the Canadiens roster out of training camp he will report back to his SHL club team Frolunda. I wrote about Lehkonen after he won the SHL championship with his team and led the league in playoff scoring and so I won’t regurgitate too much of what has already been said:
It is obviously never a guarantee if a European prospect will prosper in the NHL after finding success in the KHL, SHL, etc… Just ask Jiri Sekac how well it has gone for him since coming to North America. However, Habs fans are allowed a little more optimism with Lehkonen. For one, he is not a late bloomer and is not coming out of nowhere. Lehkonen was a 2nd round draft pick. He won gold with Team Finland at the World Junior Championships and captained the team the following year. He played in the SHL as a 19 year old with moderate success and worked hard to improve this season. Lehkonen plays a north/south game and should have an easier transition to the NHL. He is not a savior though and hopefully the expectations will be tempered in training camp. Marc Dumont suggested a Canadiens 3rd line of Lehkonen-Eller-Carr and that does sound excellent, however it still leaves a couple of holes in the Canadiens top six. However, in this long off-season fans should enjoy every little bit of good news that comes their way.
The World Championship has kicked off in Russia and unfortunately Lehkonen is not playing with Finland. Apparently there were some visa problems that prevented him from joining the team during the exhibition stage and the team named their full roster afterwards. In other World Championship news, Brendan Gallagher scored the winning goal for Canada yesterday against the USA. He is playing on Canada’s 3rd line with Ryan O’Reilly and Boone Jenner and enjoying immediate succes:
Brendan Gallagher with the game winner for @HC_Men in a 2-1 win over @usahockey. #IIHFWorlds. RT to celebrate! pic.twitter.com/7PAEXxYJPQ
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 6, 2016
Sven Andrighetto had an assist for Switzerland today in a 3-2 loss to Kazakhstan. Mike Condon gets the start in net today for team USA against Belarus.
Cheers & follow along! Follow @Jenbcutler