Hughes had no choice but to hand out the cup clinch Reconen to Avalanche.

Artturi Lehkonen will be paid.

It was the first thought that ran through my head after seeing him score a Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup clinch goal on Sunday.

A year away from unlimited free agents, Reconen, 26, is subject to arbitration and pays $ 2.4 million more than most Montreal Canadiens fans believed in the process of posting the greatest NHL season ever. Had already earned a much healthier salary increase in. He had for the second round pick and top defense outlook Justin Baron in 2024 when he was traded to Avalanche in March. He was playing like a player who could grab a hammer in negotiations and swing it easily — he doesn’t necessarily have to price himself from Montreal, but to the extent that he can accept the package. Priced itself Canadians GM Kent Hughes.

It wasn’t a turner, as Montreal’s Middle 6 Forward Group had already been heavily funded and Reconen was poised to invest in that part of the roster to maintain its position.

Hughes reportedly rejected some previous offers from Sakic and other GMs who knew exactly what they were doing at Reconen. He liked the versatile winger and had no illusions about what it would take to stay in Montreal. He was happy to pay, knowing that the rate of return on investment was virtually guaranteed.

But with the Cap Crunch roster, the team bottoming out and heading into the rebuilding phase, and a great offer at the table, Hughes did the best for the Canadians.

As for Sakic, I traded with a bottle of Dom Pérignon in both hands, hoping that an expensive cigar would hang from my mouth and be taken to Colorado’s room soon. As a builder.

It was supposed to have pushed the avalanche up, but it was hard to imagine that it was the one that sent them downhill at terminal velocity. Sakitch has made another great thing — pulling credible veteran Andrew Colliano from San Jose on a fifth round pick in 2024 and winning defensive Josh Manson from Anaheim Ducks for a defensive outlook. For Reconen, who scored 8 goals and 14 points in 20 notable games in Colorado after passing through Nashville Predators, St. Louis Bruce, Edmonton Oilers and two-time defense cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

The 26-year-old scored the goal that led the avalanche to the final, scored a goal that he sent to the locker room with the legendary silver cup on Sunday, and won two more winners in the playoffs. .. And I’m very skeptical that he was thinking about all the extra greenbacks he would put in his pocket for his performance in the near future.

However, Rekonen intends to receive a reward. He will be paid a lot and will probably be paid for a term of 5 to 7 years.

If Sakic wants to keep the annual cap numbers reasonable, of course he does. Superstar Nathan McKinnon earns a delicious salary for another season and pays before Nazem Kadri, Andre Brakovsky, Valeri Nikshkin and Manson become unlimited free agents. July of this year — he trades as reasonably as possible.

But Sakic should be happy. He will buy the best years of Lekonen’s career and most often invest in players who play right every square inch of ice. He will spend on players, clutch scorers, and now champions who have consistently improved the game at the most important times.

Ismo Lehkonen Congratulations

My second thought after Rekonen scored the Cup Clinch goal was how happy I was with his father, Ismo.

He is a Finnish NHL analyst, former coach and hockey survivor, and had no chance to be there a year ago when his son was playing in the Cup with the Canadiens. I can only imagine how special it was that he was there on Sunday to see Arturi realize his greatest dream.

Ismo has a bigger personality than the real thing. He is loud, extroverted, and completely extroverted, which makes him quite different from Artturi. However, Artturi’s public announcement is far more modest than what he does with his friends and teammates. And he not only loves his son endlessly, but also lives to burst his chops.

On one of the trips to the town of Ismo, during the second or third season of Alturi in the league (my memory was too foggy to identify which one), he had a drink after the match. I met our bunch in search. I remember telling him this. “Arturi is playing pretty good hockey here,” Arturi really did.

Isumo replied, “I need to put the shit on the net,” and laughed a lot.

At that moment, he was a fan of all the other Canadians, abandoning all the little things that Canadiens did every night, influencing positive results and thinking about the chances he missed.

Well, Ismo, Artturi put a shit on the net for the big ones. congratulations!

Luke Richardson wisely hires the Blackhawks

First reported by Frank Ceravari of DailyFaceoff.com, the deal was officially announced by Canadians assistant coach Luke Richardson to become head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks this week and will be introduced at a press conference. intend to do something. And it’s a move that will bring great benefits to organizations that are trying to turn the roster more than the Canadiens intended.

All the defenses who played for Richardson for four years behind the Montreal bench praised his approach. They consistently thought how he saved video room coaching, how he thought it wasn’t worth making mistakes in the heat of the moment, building confidence and playing well. He talked about being a coach who emphasized importance-a rounded physical game and they loved and respected him.

It’s not difficult to understand why. After playing for 20 years at the NHL, Richardson embarked on a coaching career, working as a top-level assistant for eight seasons and booking a four-year mission as head coach for the AHL Binghamton Senators. To his player. But in addition to that, he is very intelligent, respectful, a good communicator, leader and nurturer.

Ben Chiarot said he and the rest of the Canadians’ defense would go through the wall for him after Richardson stepped into head coach Dominique Dusham in last year’s Stanley Cup semifinals.

“It’s the best compliment you can give your coach,” Cheerott said. “We will go through the wall for him because he knows he will go through the wall for us. He is the coach of the players.”

This is the kind of coach a team needs to unscrew and develop for long-term success. Getting one of Richardson’s pedigree is a Chicago coup, even if this is his first official head coach job at the NHL.

Canadiens vacancies bring opportunities

What would you like to add to the staff run by the coach who previously ran the bantam bench? Are the two assistants the first NHL coaching staff?

Logically, the answer is experience.

Hopefully one of the experienced NHL head coaches recently dispatched from the Main Gig will be humble to become Martin St. Louis’ Wingman in Montreal, but to fill the void left by Richardson, they People should be the main target.

I can’t be anyone. It must be the right person.

But search is turned on.

Perhaps St. Louis already has someone in mind, and someone near him who has no NHL coaching experience still wants to embark him.

But there’s an opportunity to get what the Canadiens don’t have behind the bench, and it’s hard to imagine them leaving it.