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The Colorado Avalanche might be with out winger Artturi Lehkonen for 4 to 6 weeks resulting from a damaged finger, head coach Jared Bednar introduced on Tuesday. Bednar joined “Moser, Lombardi and Kane” on Altitude Sports Radio and confirmed that Lehkonen broke his finger in Monday night time’s win over the Montreal Canadiens.
Lehkonen will bear surgical procedure when he returns to Denver.
“My guess is that, usually, these issues are 4 to 6 weeks,” Bednar mentioned. “Sometimes they are often extra.”
After scoring the game-winning purpose in Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, Lehkonen has been terrific in his first full season with the Avalanche. He’s performed all the marketing campaign on Colorado’s prime line, and he has set new profession highs in targets (20), assists (29) and factors (49).
Bednar mentioned the Avalanche will miss Lehkonen, who additionally performs a outstanding function on particular groups.
“It’s an enormous loss,” Bednar mentioned. “Everyone who watches this workforce play is aware of how arduous he works and what he brings to our workforce. Top-line man. Top-six man that contributes in all areas and performs 20 minutes per night time. It’s an enormous loss.”
Lehkonen joins a laundry listing of Avs who’ve been sidelined resulting from damage this season. Colorado was already with out Gabriel Landeskog, Erik Johnson, Darren Helm, Pavel Francouz and Josh Manson.
“The hits simply carry on coming for this group,” Bednar mentioned.
Despite the damage bug operating rampant by the Colorado locker room, the workforce continues to be within the operating to win the Central Division. The Avalanche are 4 factors behind the second-place Minnesota Wild and 7 factors behind the first-place Dallas Stars.
