The Colorado Avalanche fended off the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night by a final score of 4-2, but while the win was great, the news about one of their top-line guys is not the best.
Head coach Jared Bednar said that Artturi Lehkonen will “miss some time,” and already has ruled him out for Tuesday night’s game against the Anaheim Ducks. Lehkonen played three shifts, totaling 3:21 of ice time before exiting for the night. His absence will be very obvious, so here’s hoping that he won’t have to miss many games.
On the Altitude broadcast, however, analyst John-Michael Liles pointed out how odd Lehkonen’s body language was. That’s not speculating what the injury might be, but it is concerning that it was brought up by a former player. Regardless, we’ll have to wait and see what comes from this at another time. Hopefully the news is better than expected.
Colorado Avalanche trade plans might change following Lehkonen injury
The Avalanche will need to fill Lehkonen’s spot on the depth chart, and they have some guys who are capable of doing so. Lehkonen was inserted on the second line for Monday’s game, with Gabriel Landeskog on the top line with MacKinnon and Martin Necas. Someone like Ross Colton seems likely to get a line promotion.
Colton’s name has actually been brought up the most in terms of a potential trade piece to acquire some depth. He’s got seven goals and 15 assists through 56 games played this season. It’s been a little bit of a down year for Colton, though, with pundits speculating that a change of scenery could do him some good.
Colton has a $4 million cap hit this season and next year before he is scheduled to enter free agency.
Colorado has been rumored to be interested in bringing back Nazem Kadri, but they likely want the Calgary Flames to retain some of Kadri’s salary in order to make the trade happen. Kadri is in the fourth year of a seven-year contract he signed after leaving the Avalanche following the 2021-22 Stanley Cup-winning season.
Whatever general manager Chris MacFarland was planning prior to Monday night’s game, Lekonen’s injury might have shifted the GM’s plans.