The Daily Faceoff Show: Will the Canadiens hang on to Artturi Lehkonen?

The Montreal Canadiens are certainly going to be sellers come trade deadline time. The question is which players they’re going to sell off and which ones they’re going to keep in the fold to build around.

On Wednesday’s edition of "The Daily Faceoff Show," Frank Seravalli answered an inbox question about Habs winger Artturi Lehkonen, a two-way forward who would be a nice addition to a contending team…

Tyler Yaremchuk: “Let’s get into our Daily Faceoff inbox question. This one comes from a Habs fan, who asks what’s the possibility that Artturi Lehkonen is traded by the deadline?”

Seravalli: “We’ve talked a lot about Artturi Lehkonen and, really, teams being on the prowl for players who sort of fit the Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow vibe. That’s really all the rage at the trade deadline. It’s such a copycat league.

I think Lehkonen fits that build perfectly. He’s a player who does just about everything right on the ice. The only thing you could want a little more of is some of the offensive production, but it’s not going to come at the expense of the way that he plays in his own end and the way that he grinds and the way that he works.

The thing is, as much as we’ve heard talk about Lehkonen and teams that are interested, the Montreal Canadiens also really like him as well. I’m told the early report from Kent Hughes in his first number of weeks as general manager is that he believes that Artturi Lehkonen could be one of the pieces that the Canadiens build around moving forward.

If the Canadiens are going to move Lehkonen, it’s going to be for a high price. I would say it’s probably leaning more towards the Canadiens keeping him at this point, but we’ll see how things shape up over the next few weeks.”

You can watch the full episode here…