Artturi Lehkonen

Artturi Lehkonen
Date of birth	4th July 1995
place of birth	Piikkiö , Finland
size	183 cm
Weight	83 kg
position	Left wing
number	# 62
Shot hand	Left
Draft
KHL Junior Draft	2012 , 2nd round, 57th position SKA Saint Petersburg
NHL Entry Draft	2013 , 2nd round, 55th position Canadiens de Montréal
Career stations
to 2012	TPS Turku
2012-2014	KalPa
2014-2016	Frölunda HC
since 2016	Canadiens de Montréal

Artturi Aleksanteri Lehkonen (born July 4, 1995 in Piikkiö ) is a Finnish ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Canadiens de Montréal in the National Hockey League since May 2016 .

Career

Artturi Lehkonen was born into an ice hockey family in Piikkiö, so his father Ismo and his uncle Timo were both professional ice hockey players and later coaches themselves. In his youth Artturi Lehkonen played for the junior departments of Turun Palloseura , TPS for short, in the city of Turku, only a few kilometers from his home town . After he had scored 54 points in 40 games for the U20s of TPS Turku in the 2011/12 season , he made his debut a little later for the club's men's team in the SM-liiga , the highest Finnish league. There he played 18 games and recorded two goals and assists. He was then selected in the KHL Junior Draft 2012 in 57th position by the SKA Saint Petersburg .

In the run-up to the 2012/13 season, Lehkonen moved within the league to Kalevan Pallo (KalPa), for which he scored 30 points in 45 games in the following season and was subsequently named Rookie of the Year in the SM-liiga. He was also selected in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft in 55th place by the Canadiens de Montréal . After another year at KalPa, the attacker left his home and signed a two-year contract with Frölunda HC from Svenska Hockeyligan in March 2014 . In his second year in Sweden, Lehkonen won both the Swedish championship and the Champions Hockey League with Frölunda HC .

After this successful season, the Canadiens de Montréal equipped him with an entry contract in May 2016 . As part of the preparation, the Finn earned a place in the Canadiens' NHL squad and thus made his debut in the National Hockey League in October 2016 . In his first season he scored 18 goals and became the third-best goalscorer of his team (together with Alexander Radulow ).

International

Lehkonen represented his home country for the first time at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2011 , where the U17 Finland took seventh place, and at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament 2011 , with the U18 losing to the Russian team in the third place match. A fourth place and a bronze medal at the U18 World Championships in 2012 and 2013 also followed at U18 level . For the Finnish U20 national team , Lehkonen took part in the U20 World Championships from 2013 to 2015 and became Junior World Champion in 2014 . The attacker made his debut in the senior national team at the Euro Hockey Tour 2015/16 .

Achievements and Awards

• 2013 rookie of the year in the SM-liiga
• 2013 bronze medal at the U18 World Championship
• 2014 gold medal at the U20 World Cup
• 2016 Champions Hockey League win with the Frölunda HC
• 2016 Swedish champion with the Frölunda HC

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2018/19 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2010/11	TPS Turku U20	A-Jun. SM-liiga		2	0	1	1	-4	0		-	-	-	-	-	-
2011/12	TPS Turku U20	A-Jun. SM-liiga		40	28	26th	54	+22	54		-	-	-	-	-	-
2011/12	TPS Turku	SM-liiga		18th	2	2	4th	–7	8th		2	0	0	0	-1	0
2012/13	KalPa	SM-liiga		45	14th	16	30th	+12	12		4th	2	1	3	-2	2
2013/14	KalPa	Liiga		33	7th	13	20th	-2	4th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2014/15	Frölunda HC	SHL		47	8th	8th	16	+18	12		13	3	3	6th	+6	0
2015/16	Frölunda HC	SHL		49	16	17th	33	+6	12		16	11	8th	19th	+11	4th
2016/17	Canadiens de Montréal	NHL		73	18th	10	28	-1	8th		6th	2	2	4th	-1	2
2017/18	Canadiens de Montréal	NHL		66	12	9	21st	–11	20th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2018/19	Canadiens de Montréal	NHL		82	11	20th	31	+20	32		-	-	-	-	-	-
A-Jun. SM-liiga total				42	28	27	55	+18	54		-	-	-	-	-	-
(SM-) Liiga overall				96	23	31	54	+3	24		6th	2	1	3	-3	2
SHL total				96	24	25th	49	+24	24		29	14th	11	25th	+17	4th
NHL overall				221	41	39	80	-2	60		6th	2	2	4th	-1	2

International

Represented Finland at:

World U-17 Hockey Challenge 2011 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament 2011 U18 World Championship 2012 U20 World Cup 2013

U18 World Championship 2013 U20 World Cup 2014 U20 World Cup 2015

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2011	Finland	WHC	7th place		5	1	1	2		0
2011	Finland	Hlinka Memorial	4th Place		5	2	3	5	+4	4th
2012	Finland	U18 World Cup	4th Place		7th	7th	3	10	+3	6th
2013	Finland	U20 World Cup	7th place		6th	3	1	4th	+5	4th
2013	Finland	U18 World Cup			7th	3	6th	9	+2	12
2014	Finland	U20 World Cup			6th	2	2	4th	+7	2
2015	Finland	U20 World Cup	7th place		5	1	0	1	-1	6th
Juniors overall					41	19th	16	35		34

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Player biography on the Canadiens de Montréal website
• Artturi Lehkonen at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Gyllander: Juniorvärldsmästaren Artturi Lehkonen till Frölunda. frolundaindians.com, March 28, 2014, accessed October 14, 2016 (Swedish). 
2. ↑ Canadiens agree to terms on a three-year contract with forward Artturi Lehkonen. nhl.com, May 8, 2016, accessed October 14, 2016 .