Kari Lehtonen
Submitted by Hockeyinformer.com on November 19, 2007 - 12:16am.
Lehtonen returned to Thrashers practice on Sunday - one month after he injured the groin against the Rangers, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Coach Don Waddell said the team will not rush Lehtonen back as they may have done in the past and with two capable goalies in Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec on the team, Wadell expects it will be at least two weeks until Lehtonen is actviated. When he does return, Lehtonen will quickly assume the starting job and now that Bob Hartley has been ousted in Atlanta, his margin for error is probably much greater. He could be a top-10 goalie over the rest of the year.
Will the real Kari Lehtonen please stand up?
I'm eagerly awaiting Lehtonen's return. I think of all the Thrashers, he was the one who was probably the happiest when Hartley got fired. He responded with his best hockey of the year by stopping the first nine shots he faced in 11 minutes of play. Then he got hurt.
Looking at the bright side, it's the only thing that keeps me going sometimes with Lehtonen, is that this injury was to a different muscle (a different part of the groin) than the one he injured before. It was a freak thing, something that could have happened to any player and not recurrence of a previous injury. For a goalie and his groin muscles, this is an important distinction.
I've pinned a lot of hope on Lehtonen's talent. I'm in a 24-team keeper league and I traded for him three and a half years ago when he was in the AHL. After last year, I thought the waiting was over and then this happened.
I'm encouraged by Pascal Leclaire's performance this year. He's healthy and leads the league in shutouts after pretty much everybody wrote him off last year. If you own Lehtonen, don't sell now. If you don't own him, now's the time to get him.