{"id":46634,"date":"2019-05-07T12:57:52","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T16:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=46634"},"modified":"2020-12-26T16:33:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T21:33:43","slug":"montreal-canadiens-sign-otto-leskinen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/05\/07\/montreal-canadiens-sign-otto-leskinen\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens Sign Otto Leskinen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/canadiens\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> have signed undrafted free agent defenceman <strong>Otto Leskinen<\/strong> to a two-year, entry-level contract worth $1.85 million, or $925,000 per season. This contract carries him through the 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Canadiens agree to terms on a two-year, entry-level contract with defenseman Otto Leskinen.<\/p>\n<p>DETAILS \u27a1 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/E9XxTD0fJ6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/E9XxTD0fJ6<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoHabsGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#GoHabsGo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/1125765162538086400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Otto Leskinen Signs With the Canadiens<\/h1>\n<p>Leskinen played 178 career games with\u00a0KalPa Kuopio of the Finnish SM-Liiga since making his professional debut in 2015-16. The Pieks\u00e4m\u00e4ki, Finland native has recorded totals of 55 points (11 goals, 44 assists) and 66 penalty minutes. He added a goal and an assist for two points in 20 career playoff games.<\/p>\n<p>He had eight goals and 23 assists for 31 points in 57 games during the 2018-19 season. The 22-year-old defender was tied for second on the team in points and fourth in points. Leskinen also had 34 penalty minutes. Those numbers were career-bests for him. He had the most points of any blue liner on the squad.<\/p>\n<p>The Finn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/canadiens\/news\/canadiens-agree-to-terms-with-defenseman-otto-leskinen\/c-307260450\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was part of the Canadiens development camp<\/a> in June of 2018. He was signed as an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/11\/05\/montreal-canadiens-free-agent-options-europe\/\" target=\"_self\">undrafted free agent<\/a>. Montreal should be familiar with him from that experience.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means for the Future<\/h2>\n<p>Leskinen is a left-handed shot and that is something the club has needed in the last few seasons. He&#8217;ll also add some depth to the organization and may start off with the Laval Rocket in the AHL.<\/p>\n<p>He probably won&#8217;t be NHL-ready as of yet, but he&#8217;s a wild card and does have some upside. The Finnish defenceman played on the top pair with his team and has been described as a smooth skater that can move the puck. He&#8217;s also seen time on the power play, which is where he collected 17 of his 31 points.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;ll need a couple of seasons to develop his defensive game as he rarely played on the penalty kill with KalPa. Working on his defence will help him get onto the Canadiens&#8217; roster in the next couple of seasons.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/05\/montreal-canadiens-prospect-defenseman-otto-leskinen-skates-during-picture-id988127456.jpg\" alt=\"\">BROSSARD, QC &#8211; JUNE 30: Montreal Canadiens Prospect Defenseman Otto Leskinen (94) skates during the Montreal Canadiens Development Camp on June 30, 2018, at Bell Sports Complex in Brossard, QC (Photo by David Kirouac\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Montreal Canadiens have signed undrafted free agent defenceman Otto Leskinen to a two-year, entry-level contract worth $1.85 million, or $925,000 per season. This contract carries him through the 2020-21 season. Canadiens agree to terms on a two-year, entry-level contract with defenseman Otto Leskinen. DETAILS \u27a1 https:\/\/t.co\/E9XxTD0fJ6#GoHabsGo &mdash; Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) May 7, 2019 Otto [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":46638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,34],"tags":[5738,152,2569,955,4041],"class_list":["post-46634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","category-news","tag-hockey-news","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-news","tag-nhl-news","tag-otto-leskinen"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}