Confirmed with Link: [TOR/CBJ] LD Mikko Lehtonen to CBJ for G Veini Vehvilainen

[Confucius]

Can you imagine waking up from a night of partying and finding yourself wearing a Vehviläinen jersey?

Nevermind this is going to light a fire under Fred's butt now.

 

[Jeypic]

Does anybody complaining about this trade know how long Campbell is out for? I know I'd much rather play marincin, Rosen, Liljegren or Sandin in the playoffs then Woll. Goalie depth is important too. Andersen needs to be able to take a few nights off before the playoffs.

 

[zeke]

Most of you people are way too relaxed about the fact that Marincin is now deathly close to being a feature in the playoffs for us again.

I'll go on record right now and say that if he gets in, Marincin will look far far better in Keefe's system than he did in Babcock's.

 

[Notsince67]

His numbers are f***ing horrible lol. Hopefully this move is just posturing for one of consequence.

Kid is young. Not a large enough sample size to figure out whether he is bad.

 

[moon111]

Columbus history:
March 6th, Columbus is losing 4-0 to Dallas. They put Vehviläinen net where he stops everything but a totally clean short-handed breakaway.
He's currently faced one shot at even-strength, one while killing the penalty, and two while short-handed.
Cleveland history:
Not sure what to make of the 2019-20 Cleveland Monsters he played on. Veini played in 33 games with 10 empty-net goals against. 3 shut-outs.

 

[zeke]

Gotta say that its pretty fun to see CBJ's stacked elite dcorps come begging for our crappy D's scraps tho.

 

[The Man with a Plan]

That's a weird one... Lehtonen was pretty meh overall. I didn't see the hype at all.

He was not here long enough for folks to be attached to him. His play was average at best. He was a free wallet turned into a goalie prospect from a team that only seems to develop goalies. Win win.
He probably asked for a trade and Dubas was smart enough to get something for nothing.

 

[DarkKnight]

Can you imagine waking up from a night of partying and finding yourself wearing a Vehviläinen jersey?

And then you go to the bathroom and there’s a tiger in there.

 

[Notsince67]

Annnd what exactly is the point of this move?

What exactly are the objections?

 

[Notsince67]

And then you go to the bathroom and there’s a tiger in there.

Once went to a steeler game years ago and woke up in a different state

 

[Albatros]

I was referring to Vehviläinen. I was high on Lehtonen I still think he could be an NHL regular. VV was also pretty highly touted before coming over and he's ~3 years younger

Neither player has shown anything in NA of substance yet so I see it as a lateralish move. Good will to the player

Vehviläinen has been only marginally better than his backups (Rynnäs, Kivlenieks, Ruusu) the last three years, it's starting to be a while since he showed any real promise. Despite being younger I'd argue he has less left in his tank in terms of development, just a decent 3rd/4th goalie for the system with no serious NHL potential.

 

[TheShape]

I liked Lehtonen, I think he could run the PP in his sleep. But Keefe trusts Dermott 5 on 5 more so, would’ve liked to seen a bit more of the player but it made sense to move him as opposed to walking for nothing.

 

[LeafParade]

This kind of tells me that Dermott is not being traded.

 

[Notsince67]

This kind of tells me that Dermott is not being traded.

I could have told u that.

 

[Crosscrease14]

Vehviläinen has been only marginally better than his backups (Rynnäs, Kivlenieks, Ruusu) the last three years, it's starting to be a while since he showed any real promise. Despite being younger I'd argue he has less left in his tank in terms of development, just a decent 3rd/4th goalie for the system with no serious NHL potential.

That's fair.. you could make the argument that Lehtonen isn't getting better than what he is though at 27. He's not a prospect and couldn't crack the top 6. I think he's a great PP2 option but did you see him at 5v5? Maybe the numbers say otherwise but he looked overwhelmed.

Maybe he just didn't have enough time to translate his game but at this point he's a fringe nhler who needs to be sheltered.

 

[Goose]

I haven’t hated a Leafs trade this much in I’m not sure how long.

Would love to understand the full rationale on this.

 

[willmma]

This has a lot to do with the Leafs’ reputation.

First off, the Leafs have put a lot of money into their big 4, so they rely on signing guys like Lehtonen to cheap contracts and finding the best ones out of the bunch to keep. The Leafs have worked hard to cultivate a reputation in Europe as a marquee destination for UFA signings.

If you start leaving guys to rot on the bench after they made a huge change to come to NA, you quickly get a reputation as a bad place to sign.

Next, the Leafs are at the top in the standings. Every one is gunning for the top dog, and nobody is looking to do the Leafs any favours. So finding trade partners is tough, especially when you’re showing weakness. The Leafs goalie situation is looking bad. Campbell is injured, Andersen is playing hurt, Hutchinson is also not 100% and not the most reliable to boot. Then we’ve got Woll who is completely untested.


The Leafs need goaltending support to rest Andersen and Campbell. This trade, while definitely not great, fixed those issues of goaltending and keeping our relationship with the KHL in good standings.

Agreed.

Hutch is the goalie Marincin. Can't wait to get past him but he keeps coming back. Heck, we traded him away last season and he still came back. He started the season as our 4th goalie and he still somehow ended playing 4 games.

We need goalie depth.

 

[moon111]

If the forwards continue to support the defense, I rather have Marincin. If the forwards are half-way up the ice waiting for an outlet pass, I rather have Lehtonen.

 

[LeafSteel]

Once went to a steeler game years ago and woke up in a different state

This was awesome!

 

[napoleon in rags]

Please no... although I could see it happening too

But please... no

Dude is like a cockroach... him playing in the Lineup never seems to die.

I'm sure he's a good guy... he can pk... that's it.

Death, taxes, and Marty Marincin.

 

[Leaftors]

i was never was biased towards him nor was i part of the crowd who proclaimed him a top 4 lock because he was the K d of the year last season

i'm just saying that if you're going to sign these guys then you should at least give them some sort of opportunity to show what they have unless of course they just look brutal which he didn't and if you don't chances are they'll stop looking at Toronto as an option

Right, and to reaffirm my point - he was given a chance and didn’t do anything to warrant taking dermott’s spot.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Leafs' 4 goalie prospects, by age:

* = current season


Age 23

VV*: Liiga 13gms, .896
Woll: ---
Scott: ---

Age 22

VV: AHL 33gms, .901
Woll*: AHL 0gms
Scott: ---

Age 21

VV: Liiga 38gms, .933 ----- Plyff 17gms, .939
Woll: AHL 32gms, .880
Scott*: AHL 0gms

Age 20

VV: Liiga 35gms, .925 ------ Plyff 17gms, .933
Woll: NCAA 37gms, .919 -- Plyff -----
Scott: AHL 0gms

Age 19

VV: Liiga 18gms, .918 ------ Plyff ------------------------- WJC-20 6gms, .931
Woll: NCAA 30gms, .915 -- Plyff ------------------------- WJC-20 5gms, .886
Scott: WHL 49gms, .932 --- Plyff 23gms, .925 ------ WJC-20 1gms, .882
AA*: VHL 14gms, .927 ----- Plyff 3gms, .891 --------- WJC-20 1gms, .944
AA*: MHL 9gms, .935 ------ Plyff 2gms, .925

Age 18

VV: Liiga 28gms, .925 ------ Plyff 3gms, .796 ------- WJC-20 4gms, .838
Woll: NCAA 34gms, .913 -- Plyff ------------------------ WJC-20 2gms, .935
Scott: WHL 50gms, .897 --- Plyff 7gms, .897
AA: MHL 46gms, .931 ------ Plyff 1gms, 1.000

Age 17

VV: Mestis 26gms, .927 --- Plyff 4gms, .922 ------- WJC-18 7gms, .949
Woll: USDP 33gms, .918 -- Plyff ----------------------- WJC-18 3gms, .947
Scott: WHL 50gms, .895 -- WJC-18 4gms, .861
AA: MHL 54gms, .921


For me AA is still the most promising, but VV is probably a good step up in prospect quality from the likes of Woll/Scott.

Woll and Scott are better goalie prospects. I would take Akhtyamov over him too because he is younger.

Vehvilainen is in the same kind of range as Rubins/Duszak. They might surprise and make the NHL some day, but they are likely nothing more than depth guys.

Woll and Scott have legit NHL potential.

 

[Judas Tavares]

Josh Leivo
Mason Marchment
Mikko Lehtonen

Players destined for legends row, gone. Gone for nothing. Oh the pain, the pain of it all.

Not sure how I'll sleep tonight.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Columbus history:
March 6th, Columbus is losing 4-0 to Dallas. They put Vehviläinen net where he stops everything but a totally clean short-handed breakaway.
He's currently faced one shot at even-strength, one while killing the penalty, and two while short-handed.
Cleveland history:
Not sure what to make of the 2019-20 Cleveland Monsters he played on. Veini played in 33 games with 10 empty-net goals against. 3 shut-outs.

Cleveland was better than Toronto last year (when Moore took over), but they weren't good.

The Marlies are still not that great this year, because Moore has not proven he is capable of doing anything at this point, but he could do better with the Marlies than with the Monsters.

He's a #3 which allows us to keep Woll in the AHL no matter what happens (barring a huge amount of injuries). We might re-sign him, but most likely we don't.

 

[Leaftors]

I haven’t hated a Leafs trade this much in I’m not sure how long.

Would love to understand the full rationale on this.

Simply.

lehtonen - free asset. Lehtonen in his time here showed as a good second power play d, and serviceable 6th defenceman. On our team, we already have guys to fill that roll - and guys that have spent years in our system proving just that.

that free asset that I just explained didn’t prove to overthrow dermott, turned into a goalie prospect who will allow Woll to play games and be the backup to hutch if both of our actual NHL goalies are hurt.