Finland native, center Jori Lehtera, has signed a two-year contract with the St. Louis Blues. He'll make $5.5 million over those two years. Lehtera, 26, was drafted by the Blues in the 2008 NHL draft in the 3rd round, and was picked 65th overall. He had a short stent in the Blues minors in 2008-2009, for then the Peoria Rivermen. He played in 7 games for them and recorded an assist. That season they made the playoffs, and he played 7 games in their playoff run, with 1 goal, and 1 assist, and 2 points. Besides that short stent in North America, he's been playing in the KHL, Russia's top league for hockey.He's was able to make himself one of the top players in the KHL, while playing for Sibir Novosibirsk. One of his teammates there was current Blues player Vladimir Tarasenko, in 2011-2012. Both had great chemistry playing together, so that should be able to help Lehtera who hasn't played an NHL game yet. He's pretty much player who is high skilled, and is a pass first player. Last season, while playing for Sibir Novosibirsk, he played in 44 games, with 12 goals, 32 assists, 44 points, and was a plus 14. In the playoffs for them, he played in 10 games, getting 6 assists, and 6 points. He made back to back All-Star games while playing in the KHL the last two season.
It sounds like he could center a line with Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko. If that line ends up to be true come the start of the NHL season, it could end up being a pretty sweet line to watch.
I'm excited to what Lehtera can do in the NHL once he plays. There's been lots of talk about him before.
No comments:
Post a Comment