MONTREAL — Montreal Canadiens forward Artturi Lehkonen, who has missed the team’s last 13 games with a lower-body injury, participated in an optional morning skate with his teammates on Thursday and there is a strong possibility he’ll return to full practice on Friday.

Lehkonen, who hasn’t played since Nov. 11, will miss Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Devils but is scheduled to be on Montreal’s seven-game road trip, which begins on Saturday in Ottawa for the 2017 Scotiabank NHL100 Classic. He has two goals and three assists in 18 games this season after scoring 18 goals and 28 points in 73 games as a rookie last season.

On Wednesday, Lehkonen said his injury had nagged him for quite some time.

“It wasn’t getting better,” Lehkonen said. “So we decided [that it was better] to take time off.”

Lehkonen also said surgery was never on the table and that he expects to be at 100 per cent when he does return to game action.