The Colorado Avalanche will be without winger Artturi Lehkonen for four to six weeks due to a broken finger, head coach Jared Bednar announced on Tuesday. Bednar joined "Moser, Lombardi and Kane" on Altitude Sports Radio and confirmed that Lehkonen broke his finger in Monday night's win over the Montreal Canadiens.
Lehkonen will undergo surgery when he returns to Denver.
"My guess is that, generally, those things are four to six weeks," Bednar said. "Sometimes they can be more."
After scoring the game-winning goal in Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, Lehkonen has been terrific in his first full season with the Avalanche. He's played the entire campaign on Colorado's top line, and he has set new career highs in goals (20), assists (29) and points (49).
Bednar said the Avalanche will miss Lehkonen, who also plays a prominent role on special teams.
"It's a huge loss," Bednar said. "Everyone who watches this team play knows how hard he works and what he brings to our team. Top-line guy. Top-six guy that contributes in all areas and plays 20 minutes per night. It's a huge loss."
Lehkonen joins a laundry list of Avs who have been sidelined due to injury this season. Colorado was already without Gabriel Landeskog, Erik Johnson, Darren Helm, Pavel Francouz and Josh Manson.
"The hits just keep on coming for this group," Bednar said.
Despite the injury bug running rampant through the Colorado locker room, the team is still in the running to win the Central Division. The Avalanche are four points behind the second-place Minnesota Wild and seven points behind the first-place Dallas Stars.
