What to Make of Artturi Lehkonen’s 2024-25 Season

It was a tale of two seasons for Artturi Lehkonen.

After missing all of training camp and the start of the regular season, Lehkonen burst onto the scene on Nov. 5 and quickly made an impact.

He scored in his season debut back and had three goals and six points in his first five games while playing more than 22 minutes each night. It was a massive boost for a team starving for depth scoring.

The Avalanche had started the year in a bind. Still without Gabe Landeskog, they were also missing Valeri Nichushkin (suspension) and Lehkonen (injury). And on opening night, Jonathan Drouin also suffered an injury. They basically had five wingers capable of playing regularly in the top six, and the only one that was healthy was Mikko Rantanen.

They did what they’ve done in past years while waiting for guys to get back. They rode the three-headed monster of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Rantanen.

Lehkonen wasted no time being productive in his return. He didn’t need much time to get going and was thrown right to the wolves. Throughout his career, he’s played more than 24 minutes in a regular-season game 16 times. Ten of those came between November and the March 7 trade deadline this season.

But that’s when his production dried up. It was strange to see unfold. He wasn’t necessarily playing poorly, he just couldn’t produce.

Remember when the Avs smashed the San Jose Sharks on the eve of the deadline? The night they traded for Brock Nelson?

Lehkonen finished that game with two assists and had 26 goals and 13 assists in 51 games. He was scoring at an incredible pace and was four goals away from his first 30-goal campaign with 19 games remaining. But the rest of the season was different

Lehkonen, playing mostly on the top line, had just one goal and five assists the rest of the way. And in the playoffs, Lehkonen scored three goals and added an assist.

What made his late-season struggles even more frustrating was that he was the only one experiencing it. MacKinnon and Makar each had 18 points in their last 16 games after the deadline. Nichushkin took off with nine goals and six assists in his last 18 games. Nelson and Martin Necas both had six goals and seven assists in 18 games. Jonathan Drouin, who played 13 games after the deadline, recorded 10 points. Even Devon Toews had a whopping 14 points in 17 games.

The other five parts of the top six forward group and the top pair on the blueline. They were all producing at a solid rate. Then there was Lehkonen, who couldn’t quite figure it out despite playing most of those minutes with his usual linemates from the previous stretch of games in MacKinnon and Necas.

Lehkonen is turning 30 in July and still has two years remaining on his contract. He’s making only $4.5 million per season and might be one of the more undervalued forwards in the league.

But his season, at least offensively, was a clear view of the issues the Avs have faced for each of the past two years. With a top-heavy lineup for most of the year, the top forwards are often playing way more than they should in the first half of the season. The fact that 10 of the top 16 games in ice time in Lehkonen’s career came in a three-month stretch says it all.

Lehkonen will probably blow past the 45 points he had this year. But the Avs would be wise to enter the season with a more complete lineup and a proper top six on opening night. I’ve written about this before, but they’re already in a better situation than they were a year ago.

They know (as of right now) that Lehkonen is healthy, Nichushkin is available, Landeskog is back, and Necas is ready to go. They have MacKinnon as their stable force in the top center spot. They just need one more guy to fill in the 2C role.

They need these guys to make it through the offseason, training camp, and preseason so they can start the season with the best lineup in a season opener since the Cup year.

If so, it’ll allow Lehkonen to settle into his role with consistent linemates and ice time. Assuming they can stay relatively healthy — something Lehkonen has struggled with in the last three years.