Artturi Lehkonen signs with Frolunda in the Swedish Hockey League

According to reports out of Sweden, Finnish scoring winger and Montreal Canadiens prospect Artturi Lehkonen will be moving on from his SM-Liiga club KalPa after two years, and has signed with the Frolunda Indians of the Swedish Hockey League.

Frolunda should be a familiar name to Habs fans, as that is where prospect Sebastian Collberg has toiled away without much ice time and without much offensive production.

Lehkonen put up numbers comparable to Teuvo Teravainen in the SM-Liiga, leading his team in scoring as an 18 year old in spite of missing nearly half the season due to an ankle injury sustained during his first game at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Malmo, where he was a key figure in Finland's gold medal performance.

Lehkonen's 19 year old season should give us a good indication of where he is as a prospect compared to Collberg's bad luck 19 year old season with the same team. Lehkonen looks like the superior goal scorer, with a style very similar to Brendan Gallagher, and his defensive game seems to be about a year ahead of Collberg in development, at least from what we saw at the World Juniors, where Lehkonen was flat out dominant on the penalty kill.

Another year in Europe should give Lehkonen some time to bulk up, as the shifty Finn isn't exactly small at 5'11", but is very slight at just under 170 pounds.

UPDATE: The signing of Lehkonen has been confirmed as a two year deal with Frolunda.

This news also likely means that Collberg will be moving on from Frolunda, as the prospect the Canadiens traded for Thomas Vanek is rumoured to be headed to the AHL next season to play for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

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