Artturi Lehkonen

Last Season

Twenty-one goals and 48 points in 70 games, plus-32, on eighteen and a half minutes a night. He played 53 percent of his five-on-five time on the top line.

The Finesse Game

The finishing has improved every year he has been here. He scores from the net front and the inner slot, and 153 shots in seventy games is a healthy volume for a player whose primary job is not scoring.

He is not a creator. The passing is honest, he does not carry the puck through traffic, and he does his best offensive work by getting to a spot and being ready.

The skating is quick enough to hold a top-line spot beside two players who are much quicker.

The Physical Game

Five-eleven and 179, and he plays a much heavier game than that. He forechecks hard, goes into the corners against defencemen with fifty pounds on him, and is genuinely difficult to play against for a player his size.

He has missed time in most seasons, which is the cost of playing this way at this weight.

The Intangibles

A second-round pick who scored a Cup-clinching goal and has spent his career being the responsible forward on lines with players who are not.

At thirty-one this is his level: a twenty-goal winger who can be trusted in any situation and elevates whichever line he is put on. Very few teams have one.