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Artturi Lehkonen

Central Notes: Tanev, Stastney, Avalanche

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Chris Tanev’s time in Dallas has been limited so far – just five games since being acquired – but GM Jim Nill already knows he’d like to have the veteran in the fold for the long haul.  Speaking with David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Nill expressed a desire to re-sign the pending UFA after the season:

Whenever you make a move for somebody you like, and you’ve done your research on, and I’ve seen Chris Tanev play a lot, heard all the stories about him, and now we get to live it and stuff. And he has everything we’ve heard, living up to the billing, so we think he’s a great fit for us. Let’s get the games going, let’s get the playoffs going. And but he’s definitely a guy that if we can make it work, we’d love to bring him back here.

The 34-year-old rarely puts up points but is known as one of the better defensive blueliners in the NHL.  Accordingly, he is well-positioned to earn a raise on his current $4.5MM price tag in the summer, one that will be tricky for the Stars to afford within their salary structure.

More from the Central Division:

  • The Predators announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Spencer Stastney is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury. The 24-year-old was injured on Thursday, his first game with Nashville since mid-December.  Stastney has a goal in ten NHL contests so far this season while he has chipped in with 20 points in 44 appearances with AHL Milwaukee.  With Dante Fabbro also injured, Nashville is down to just six healthy defensemen so they may recall someone before today’s game against Seattle.
  • Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen is expected to return tonight versus Edmonton after missing the last two games due to illness, relays play-by-play voice Conor McGahey (Twitter link). The 28-year-old has been limited to just 30 games so far this season but has done well when he has been in the lineup, collecting 11 goals and 11 assists.  Meanwhile, McGahey adds that wingers Zach Parise and Jonathan Drouin are also expected to return tonight.  Parise has missed two straight with a lower-body injury while Drouin missed Wednesday’s contest with a lower-body injury of his own.  Parise has seven points in 15 games in his final NHL season while Drouin has done well, picking up 38 points in 64 appearances so far.
  • With those returns, the Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned forward Fredrik Olofsson to AHL Colorado. The 27-year-old played in two games on this recall to bring his season total to 57.  Olofsson has nine points in those appearances while averaging 9:45 per contest.

Injury Notes: Avalanche, Bruins, Marino

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The Avalanche will again be without forwards Artturi Lehkonen and Zach Parise against the Canucks on Wednesday, head coach Jared Bednar said on 92.5 FM Altitude Sports Radio (via Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now). Bednar did not rule either player out for the following contest, a Saturday game in Edmonton, although he did not confirm either would be ready to return by then either.

Without two players who have spent extended time in Colorado’s top six, recent trade pickup Brandon Duhaime will continue to get a tryout on their new-look second line alongside Jonathan Drouin and Casey Mittelstadt in Vancouver. The 26-year-old grinder has averaged only 10:40 per game this season across 64 games with the Avalanche and Wild, recording four goals and nine points.

Lehkonen, 28, is listed as day to day with an illness and will miss his second straight game after sitting out Tuesday’s 6-2 drubbing of the Flames. That, plus a neck injury, has limited him to 30 games on the season, although that hasn’t stopped him from putting together another strong campaign with 22 points and a +7 rating while averaging 18:54 per game.

The 39-year-old Parise has been a solid free-agent pickup for the Avs since signing in late January. He has four goals and seven points through 15 games while logging 14:14 a night. He hasn’t played since sustaining a lower-body injury against the Red Wings a week ago and will miss his third straight game.

Other updates from around the league:

Logan O’Connor To Undergo Hip Surgery, Out For Season

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Avalanche winger Logan O’Connor will undergo hip surgery this week and will not return this season, Ryan Boulding of NHL.com reports. O’Connor, who last played on March 4, has been dealing with the injury for most of the season, head coach Jared Bednar said.

Bednar issued multiple other injury updates Sunday, confirming that veteran winger Zach Parise is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and that Ross Colton, Jack Johnson and Artturi Lehkonen did not practice due to illness but will travel with the team on their upcoming four-game road trip. Depth center Chris Wagner, who sat out Friday’s game against the Wild with an upper-body injury, will be available on the trip if needed, Bednar said.

Before exiting the lineup last week, O’Connor missed a four-game stretch in February and a two-game stretch in November with a lower-body injury. Bednar’s comments imply that O’Connor sustained the initial injury as late as Nov. 20, the game immediately prior to his first absence of the season.

Despite the injury, O’Connor has managed the best season of his career and was a necessary stabilizing force with many Avalanche depth forwards either missing significant time or underperforming. He managed 13 goals, 12 assists and 25 points in 57 games, a career-best 0.44 points per game pace, although he’d failed to get on the scoresheet in his last seven games.

Aside from his point totals, O’Connor also recorded career-highs in ATOI (14:57) while putting up good even-strength possession stats (54.5 CF%, 54.3 xGF%) in shutdown usage. He was also a significant part of the Avs’ top-10 penalty kill, averaging 2:17 per game.

Luckily for Colorado, GM Chris MacFarland went big-game hunting at the trade deadline. Their acquisitions of Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker will draw the most attention, but a targeted move to snag Yakov Trenin from the Predators should help balance out O’Connor’s absence. The 27-year-old Trenin hasn’t scored at O’Connor’s rate this year, posting 14 points in 61 games, but he does have double-digit goal totals and is comfortable in defensive usage and penalty-kill scenarios. He’ll slot seamlessly into the third-line right wing O’Connor was projected to occupy behind Valeri Nichushkin and Mikko Rantanen down the stretch and in the postseason.

O’Connor is in the second season of a three-year, $3.15MM extension signed with the Avs in 2021 that began in the 2022-23 season. He costs $1.05MM against the cap, which the Avalanche could use to increase their financial flexibility down the stretch by placing him on LTIR, but are unlikely to do so with a $2.1MM cushion still remaining from Pavel Francouz’s and Gabriel Landeskog’s combined $9MM cap hits.

Avalanche To Activate Artturi Lehkonen

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The Avalanche will activate winger Artturi Lehkonen off long-term injured reserve before tonight’s game against the Capitals, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports 92.5 FM (KKSE-FM) on Wednesday. Both he and defenseman Bowen Byram, who the team activated from injured reserve Tuesday, will return from multi-week absences tonight, per Bednar.

Lehkonen has not played since sustaining a neck injury against the Kraken on Nov. 9. His return ends a 35-game absence over the course of two and a half months.

The 28-year-old’s return to play comes soon after Colorado’s other major source of secondary scoring, Valeri Nichushkin, entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. The Avalanche have a 3-2-0 record and a +4 goal differential in their last five games without either Lehkonen or Nichushkin, importantly keeping pace for second place in the Central Division ahead of the Stars, who are only one point back of Colorado and are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games.

Lehkonen shouldered major minutes for the Avalanche through the first 12 games of the year, averaging 18:29 per game, including his injury-shortened outing against Seattle. The Finnish winger posted three goals and five assists for eight points, a slight dip in pace from last season’s career-high 21 goals and 51 points in 64 games.

His return will help shoulder the indefinite loss of Nichushkin and will provide a needed boost to a middle-six that’s struggled to produce much offense. While Colorado’s 179 goals lead the league, a disproportionate amount of that has come from Nichushkin, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Notably, Ross Colton and Logan O’Connor each have six points in their last five games and are hovering around a 41-point pace.

Now, the Avalanche hope Lehkonen can stay healthy until the postseason, where he’s done some of his best work. He posted 14 points in 20 games en route to 2022’s Stanley Cup win and had three goals and six points in last season’s seven-game loss to the Kraken in the First Round.

Morning Notes: Byram, Lehkonen, Ovechkin, Guentzel

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Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram and winger Artturi Lehkonen will make their returns to the lineup within the next week, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports Radio (KKSE-FM). Both players, who are on IR and LTIR, respectively, will be activated by next Wednesday’s game against the Capitals at the latest. They’ve been ruled out for tomorrow’s game in Boston, however. Byram will have missed at least seven games with a lower-body injury sustained Jan. 4 against the Stars, while Lehkonen has been out for over two months with a neck injury and will miss his 34th game tomorrow. The Avalanche will either need to assign one contract to the minors or move Valeri Nichushkin to LTIR while he completes treatment in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program to clear up the cap space for Lehkonen’s $4.5MM cap hit to come off LTIR. They’re currently short about $500K in space to execute the transaction, per CapFriendly.

More from around the NHL this morning:

  • The Capitals expect captain Alex Ovechkin to return from a lower-body injury during their next two games, head coach Spencer Carbery said on 106.7 The Fan (WJFK-FM) today. Ovechkin has missed the last three games, but the Capitals have emerged with a 2-1-0 record in a trio of low-scoring affairs without him. Carbery commented further on the nature of his star sniper’s absence, saying the injury isn’t related to an awkward collision he had with Hurricanes center Jordan Staal earlier in the month. While “The Great 8” has had a much-publicized down season in the goal-scoring department (8-19–27 in 39 games), he was on a six-game point streak before exiting the lineup and still holds a slim lead on Dylan Strome for most points on the team.
  • Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas is expected to have a conversation with pending UFA winger Jake Guentzel’s camp about his future with the team during the upcoming All-Star break, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on Monday’s edition of the “32 Thoughts” podcast. Reports earlier this month indicated Guentzel’s agent, Ben Hankinson, may opt to delay extension talks until the summer. While a 6-2-2 run in their last 10 games now has the Penguins at a 60% chance of making the postseason, per Hockey Reference, they’re not a lock in a competitive Metropolitan Division. If their conversation in a few weeks doesn’t result in Dubas having substantive confidence in his ability to extend Guentzel, the two-time 40-goal scorer may end up the subject of a blockbuster deadline trade.

Central Notes: Foligno, Jones, Manson, Lehkonen, Scheifele

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Blackhawks winger Nick Foligno is already on injured reserve with a fractured finger sustained last week against the Devils but has remained without a recovery timeline. Today, he told reporters (including the Chicago Sun-Times’ Ben Pope) that doctors have informed him he’ll be on a week-to-week timeline.

The Blackhawks’ most veteran player, at 36 years old and 1,100-plus games played, is fresh off signing a two-year, $9MM extension. He’s seen heavy deployment with rookie Connor Bedard this season, although both are now sidelined due to separate injuries both sustained against the Devils. He’s been elevated back to first-line minutes for the first time since 2021, his last season as captain of the Blue Jackets, partly due to additional injuries to other Blackhawks forwards like Taylor Hall. With eight goals and 17 points through 39 games, he’s fourth on the team in points behind Bedard, Philipp Kurashev and Jason Dickinson.

More from the Central Division:

  • Sticking with Chicago, number-one blueliner Seth Jones is officially back in the lineup tonight against the Stars after missing 15 games with a lower-body injury, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis. Coming out to make room is veteran Jarred Tinordi, who had two points in his last three games. Jones, who has averaged over 25 minutes per game this year, returns to a top-pairing role with youngster Alex Vlasic to his left. Despite his injury, Jones and Vlasic have still seen the most ice time together of any Blackhawks defense pairing this season at 254 minutes in 25 games, per MoneyPuck. In 27 appearances on the year, Jones has 11 assists and a -5 rating.
  • Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson has returned to the lineup tonight against the Maple Leafs, as initially reported by The Denver Post’s Corey Masisak. The 32-year-old, who’s no stranger to injuries, missed the last two contests for undisclosed reasons. He’s taken a major step forward defensively in his second full season with Colorado, posting a 53.4% Corsi share at even strength through 37 games this year. He’s supplemented that with five goals and 12 points, playing his best hockey since coming to Denver via trade from the Ducks at the 2022 trade deadline.
  • Injured Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen is nearing a return from his neck injury that’s kept him out since the beginning of November, head coach Jared Bednar said earlier this week (via Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now). Bednar said Lehkonen could return during the Avs’ lengthy road trip, which has four games remaining after tonight and wraps up on January 20 in Philadelphia. The 28-year-old would be a huge boost to Colorado’s top six and had eight points in his first 12 contests. Now in the second season of a five-year, $22.5MM deal, he would presumably help anchor a second line that, at least tonight, currently features no players with over half a point per game this season with Valeri Nichushkin out with illness.
  • Jets top-line center Mark Scheifele isn’t playing tonight against the Flyers with a lower-body injury sustained Thursday against Chicago, per the team. Captain Adam Lowry moves up to the first line in his absence to center Nikolaj Ehlers and Gabriel Vilardi. Scheifele’s 27 assists and 41 points through 41 games both lead the team, so it’s a sizable loss for a squad looking to extend their eight-game win streak. He’s in the final season of an eight-year, $49MM carrying a $6.125MM cap hit but is locked into a seven-year extension with an $8.5MM cap hit beginning next season.

Avalanche Notes: Manson, Wood, Lehkonen

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Ryan Boulding of NHL.com is reporting that Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson will not dress tonight when the Avalanche take on the Vegas Golden Knights. Manson suffered an undisclosed injury at Avalanche practice on Monday and did not play against the Boston Bruins on Monday night. The 32-year-old has five goals and seven assists in 37 games this season, his second full year with Colorado.

Manson joins an ever-growing list of Avalanche players who are out of the lineup, although it is not known how long he will continue to miss games. Very little is known about Manson’s injury at the moment, and it is expected that there will be an update on his status in the coming days.

In other Avalanche notes:

  • Ryan Boulding is also reporting that Avalanche forward Miles Wood will not play tonight as he is dealing with an illness. Like Manson, Wood also missed Monday night’s game against Boston and tested positive for influenza according to Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. Wood is in his first season with the Avalanche after signing a six-year contract on July 1st. The 28-year-old has scored at a comparable rate to his career average this season with six goals and six assists in 39 games. He has been much more responsible with and without the puck this year with Colorado as Wood has reduced his turnover rate dramatically, while also increasing his takeaway numbers.
  • Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now is reporting that Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar would love to see forward Artturi Lehkonen play on their upcoming road trip, but it is not a guarantee. Lehkonen will reportedly join the team when they begin their road trip on Friday starting in Toronto and could play for the first time since November 9th. Lehkonen was sidelined with a neck injury after a scary fall into the boards and was originally given a 10–12-week recovery timeline that he is eight weeks into. When he can return the 28-year-old will provide a big boost to Colorado’s top-6 particularly if he can get back to his level of play from last season. This year Lehkonen has three goals and five assists in 12 games.

Injury Updates: Wild, Sabres, Lehkonen

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The Minnesota Wild have been dealing with an absolutely massive slate of injuries in their recent stretch of games, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the team. The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported today that the trio of core pillars for the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov, Filip Gustavsson, and Jared Spurgeon are all “progressing and skating,” and thereby in their “next phase” toward full returns to the ice.

Adding Kaprizov, Spurgeon, and Gustavsson back to their roster would give the Wild their number-one winger, number-one defenseman, and number-one goalie back. The team has been strong under new head coach John Hynes, but in order for them to truly have a chance of keeping up in the Central Division that trio of players will need to return to the ice sooner rather than later.

Some other injury updates from across the NHL:

  • As reported by the Buffalo Times Herald’s Bill Hoppe, Buffalo Sabres wingers Victor Olofsson and Jordan Greenway are currently sick and out on a day-to-day timeline for the team. Olofsson was a healthy scratch for the team’s most recent game in favor of Eric Robinson, while Greenway skated on their third line alongside Zach Benson and Casey Mittelstadt. With captain Kyle Okposo now out week-to-week, the possibility both Greenway and Olofsson miss tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Kraken would mean the team could potentially need to recall a forward or two from the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
  • Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal reports that forward Artturi Lehkonen is skating at Avalanche practice in a white jersey, meaning he has officially moved past the non-contact stage of his injury recovery. The 28-year-old Finnish winger had a breakout campaign last season when he scored at a 27-goal, 65-point 82-game pace and had scored eight points in 12 games this season before suffering his significant injury.

Central Notes: Connor, Girard, Lehkonen, Reichel

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Winnipeg Jets’ leading goal-scorer Kyle Connor is making progress in his return from a knee injury, returning to the Jets’ practices in a no-contact jersey. The winger has been out for 20 days but still leads Winnipeg with 17 goals scored across 26 games, a mark tied for 11th in the NHL – despite Connor playing in at least five games fewer than any other player in the top 20. Winnipeg has leaned even heavier into Mark Scheifele in Connor’s absence, with the recently-extended centerman scoring eight points in the seven games that Connor has missed. The Jets have proven surprisingly successful for a team missing their top goal-scorer, setting a 4-1-2 record without Connor. And while that’s a great sign for optimism, the Jets were on a four-game winning streak leading up to Connor’s injury, and had a five-game winning streak just a few games prior. They will look to get back on that winning run as Connor continues to progress back to play.

Other notes from around the Central Division:

  • Samuel Girard is set to return to the Colorado Avalanche lineup on Sunday, after missing the team’s last 20 games for personal reasons. It was known that Girard would return soon, as the Avalanche anticipate the return of an option that averages over 20 minutes a night for the team. Girard has scored four goals in 15 games this season.
  • Artturi Lehkonen has begun taking full practices with the Avalanche, after working independently for much of the week. Lehkonen is working back from a scary-looking neck injury that’s held him out since late-November. Lehkonen has scored eight points in 12 games this season. And while Lehkonen returned, Ross Colton did not skate on Saturday.
  • Lukas Reichel could be set to lose a significant amount of money on his first NHL contract after his entry-level deal, per The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus, who shares that the promising 21-year-old was set for a comfy pay raise from his entry-level contract prior to the season, but now may only receive a cheap qualifying offer as a restricted-free agent after a season of struggles. Reichel has managed just eight points through 34 games this season and currently sits with a -19. And while Reichel continues to struggle, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson and head coach Luke Richardson both told Lazerus that Reichel has proven he’s an NHL talent, and that a move to the AHL isn’t in the cards yet.

Injury Notes: Ducks, Lehkonen, Benning, Puljujarvi, Blue Jackets

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The Anaheim Ducks are nearing the return of two of the most important players in their organization, Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale. Zegras, who is dealing with an undisclosed injury, has been out of the lineup since November 10th, while Drysdale, has been out with a lower-body injury since October 19th.

There is no firm date for the eventual return of either player, but Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune reports that both players returned for practice this morning. In the same report, Lee also mentioned that breakout center, Mason McTavish, was still absent from practice after suffering an upper-body injury last week.

Anaheim could certainly use the reinforcements on both sides of the puck, as the team has recorded only one win in the last 11 games. Aside from just returning to the lineup, the Ducks will need both players to step up their game, as Zegras has only registered two points in 12 games, while Drysdale has only been in the lineup 10 times in the last 108 regular season games.

Other injury notes:

  • Without much specificity into the severity of the injury, the Colorado Avalanche have been without top-six forward, Artturi Lehkonen, for the last month after he suffered a neck injury in the team’s game against the Seattle Kraken on November 9th. After joining the team for practice yesterday, the expectation is that Lehkonen will not return for another six to eight weeks, narrowing his return to January or February (X Link). Currently sitting at fourth in the Western Conference, Colorado will only have a few weeks to see how Lehkonen returns before potentially making a move at the trade deadline on March 9th.
  • Missing nearly a month to an undisclosed injury in early November, beat writer Curtis Pashelka reports that San Jose Sharks defenseman Matt Benning is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. In arguably the weakest defensive core in the NHL, Benning is one of 11 defensemen to play at least one game for San Jose this season, averaging just under 18 and a half minutes of ice time per night, placing him sixth on the team amongst defensemen in that category.
  • Hoping to make his return to the NHL soon, Chris Johnston of TSN is reporting that unrestricted free agent forward, Jesse Puljujarvi, has fully recovered from his hip surgery and has been cleared for full-contact training by doctors. Even when healthy, Puljujarvi’s market is going to be extremely limited, if one develops at all. The former fourth overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft, Puljujarvi has scored 114 points in 334 career games, including a 36-point season for the Edmonton Oilers back in the 2021-22 season.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that in the Columbus Blue Jackets game tomorrow against the Florida Panthers, forwards Cole Sillinger and Patrik Laine may be making their return to the lineup. Sillinger has missed the last five games due to an upper-body injury suffered on November 29th, while Laine has been out through the last three games with an illness.
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