Off to a hot start, will pending UFA Artturi Lehkonen price himself out of Colorado?
The Chris Johnston Show: Julian McKenzie and Chris Johnston on Colorado Avalanche pending UFA forward Artturi Lehkonen, who is off to a good start playing on a line with Nathan MacKinnon.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
McKenzie: “What’s going on, or what’s the deal with our Artturi Lehkonen, who is a pending UFA this year at a cap at $4.5 million? The final year of a five-year deal, but he’s off to a decent start: 12 goals, 17 points, and 16 games. What’s the latest with Artturi Lehkonen?”
Johnston: “Well, that’s a scorching start for Artturi Lehkonen. I mean, I think of him as …”
McKenzie: “Very good.”
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Johnston: “… a 20-goal guy typically across a full season. He’s got 12 and 16 games, obviously aided by that 35% shooting percentage. You know, I don’t expect it to continue at that rate, nor should anyone.
But look, he’s playing on the top line with Nathan McKinnon, so he’s got a really good spot. That’s one of the best places in hockey you could find yourself. I would, I would say, is, is on his, his line, and it’s it’s worked pretty well, and to have it come during a contract year, I think does raise questions about where this is going.
You know, what I can tell you with certainty is Artturi Lehkonen would love to remain in Colorado. This isn’t a case where, you know, it’s been a great fit since he came over from Montreal. He played a huge role in their Stanley Cup win a couple years ago. You know, this is a player that brings a certain level of production that I think has been consistent, but he also does things that impact the game in a positive manner that don’t show up on the score sheet. I mean, he’s thought of very well around the league.
So you know he would like to stay in Colorado, but they haven’t made enough overtures to sign him to, to compel him for that to happen. And then you get into a year like this, and, you know, not only the salaries around the league going up, he’s having again. Don’t want to overreact, but through almost a quarter of the season, he’s performing at a, at a level that we haven’t seen before.
And so, you know, it might almost bring me back to a guy like Darren Raddysh last year in Tampa, right? Who, who just blew his numbers out of the water from what had existed prior to that. Obviously, Lehkonen today is more established as an NHL player and more understood as a player than what Raddysh was, but Raddysh got to a point where he couldn’t stay in Tampa. They weren’t going to pay him what the market was, and ultimately ended up in Toronto in the offseason.
I think it could end up in the same spot for Lehkonen, where he wants to stay. They want to keep him, but you know the numbers would just get to a place that they can’t do it.
And, you know, I’ve asked around a little bit about him. You know, some divided opinion I would say. I mean, lots, lots of people like him, but you know, someone suggested to me maybe he gets a deal like three years times $7 million on his next contract. You know, similar to what Mikhael Granlund got on his latest deal with the Anaheim Ducks. I’ve had others say it’s going to be above eight. That they think that he’ll be, you know, coming in with an AAV above eight on average on his next contract.
And, and so at a certain point, I don’t think that at times today the Avalanche are going to have to decide: is that something that you would even consider? Is there a way to maybe, quote unquote, hometown discount him? Stretch out the years maybe to, to keep the lower AAV. You know, we’ll have to see how it goes.
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But needless to say, Lehkonen’s done everything you want to do if you’re in a contract year. By having that kind of start, and, you know, it does apply a certain pressure I think to the Avalanche to evaluate where, where he’s going to be at. And so you know a little soon to say yet where it’s going to go. But you know the one thing I’m confident in saying, he’s going to get a nice raise one way or another on his next deal.”
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