Toronto Maple Leafs: Temper Your Expectations For Mikko Lehtonen

The Toronto Maple Leafs inked KHL star defenseman Mikko Lehtonen to a one-year entry level contract on Monday.

Personally, I love that the Toronto Maple Leafs spent essentially zero dollars on the star defenseman from Finland because there’s no risk involved, but we should all temper our expectations of the 26-year-old defenseman.

Last week, I wrote that the Leafs should sign Lehtonen, but didn’t expect it to happen this quickly.

After leading all KHL defenseman in scoring with 49 points last season, I expected Lehtonen to mull over multiple offers for weeks. However, the Toronto Maple Leafs must have been showing interest in him for months if he made this life-changing decision in only 48 hours.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Mikko Lehtonen

By living in Canada and primarily following North American hockey (NHL, AHL, CHL, etc.), KHL games are tough to watch, and though few people have seen him play (outside of youtube highlights) his reputation from those who have is glowing.

For prospect evaluation, Scott Wheeler from The Athletic  is someone who’s very trusted in the industry. As you can see in his tweet above, he mentions that Lehtonen will “challenge for a spot.”

Although you have to assume that Lehtonen will end up making the team, we shouldn’t be over-hyping a player who isn’t guaranteed a job with the Leafs yet.

In a similar deal two years ago, the Leafs signed KHL defenseman Igor Ozhiganov and the Toronto Sun’s article read: “Maple Leafs win race for young European talent.” 53 games and seven points later, Ozhiganov was no longer a member of the team, so sometimes these things don’t work out as planned.

Lehtonen is seen as a significantly better prospect than Ozhiganov, who no one ever mistook for the KHL’s best defenseman, but that doesn’t mean he is guaranteed to succeed in the NHL.

The left-side of the Leafs defense is stacked with Rasmus Sandin, Jake Muzzin, Calle Rosen, Travis Dermott and Morgan Rielly, so unless the Leafs look to trade someone for a right-handed defenseman or move someone to their weaker side, it may be tough to make everyone happy.

All we can hope for is that Lehtonen transitions to the North American style of hockey quickly and plays a game that Kyle Dubas loves because at $925,000 per year the Toronto Maple Leafs will need him to.

This signing has nothing but upside, but let’s see Lehtonen play an NHL game first before we declare him the Finnish Bobby Orr.