Canucks prospect Lekkerimaki making strides after difficult year

VANCOUVER — Since he was drafted in the first round 361 days ago, Jonathan Lekkerimaki has been eclipsed among Vancouver Canuck prospects by Aatu Raty and Tom Willander.

Raty, a centre, was the centrepiece of January’s blockbuster trade with the New York Islanders, while the defenceman Willander was the Canucks’ top pick, selected 11^th, in last week’s National Hockey League draft. 

Goalie prospect Arturs Silovs continued his rocket ride upwards by starring for Latvia at the world championship in May. And this week’s development camp in Vancouver features college-free-agent acquisitions Akito Hirose and Cole McWard, who both impressed in late season NHL cameos for the Canucks.

He is not yet even 19 years old, but Lekkerimaki literally and figuratively is last year’s news. And after his challenging draft-plus-one season in Sweden, the winger is no longer the Canucks’ shiny, new toy.

The spotlight is on others at the Canucks’ summer camp for prospects at the University of British Columbia, but time in the shadows to develop is probably just what Lekkerimaki needs.

“He never got a break last year,” Canucks director of player development Ryan Johnson said Monday. “Coming out of the draft (and going) right into the world junior, and all the expectations, we really felt like he didn’t have time to decompress and just be.

“It’s a big difference in his demeanor from last year where he just looked like he had been through a lot. And he had. He just looks much more comfortable in his own skin.”

Lekkerimaki may no longer be the top prospect in the organization, but he is still a vitally important one — an offensive winger with the potential to become a pure goal-scorer.

He just didn’t look like one for most of last season when mononucleosis preceded a concussion and serious foot injury, setbacks that prevented the 15^th overall pick from 2022 building any momentum or consistency. Lekkerimaki finished his regular season with just three goals and nine points in 29 games for Djurgardens in Sweden’s second-division Allsvenskan. In his draft year, the five-foot-11 forward had seven goals in 26 games after a mid-season promotion to the super Swedish Hockey League.

Reminders of his under-achievement last winter were ever-present. Lekkerimaki’s friends and former junior linemates, Noah Ostlund and Liam Ohgren, drafted 16^th and 19^th respectively by Buffalo and Minnesota, combined for 46 points for Djurgardens.

Lekkerimaki scored once in 14 games for Sweden during two Under-20 world tournaments.

“I don’t know if that helped or not helped,” Mikael Samuelsson, the Canucks’ player-development coach in Sweden, said of the linemate comparisons. “What I told him, like: ‘This is your career. Your timeline could be way off your best friends’. This is your career and we need to get that fixed so, like, just relax.’

“Just to get the mental side in order; that was the first part. Just calm down. You need to work on stuff, but you also do great stuff. My take was he was trying to force things.”

The foot injury Lekkerimaki suffered during a practice in February was expected to end his dismal season. But he worked his way through rehab in time to rejoin Djurgardens in the playoffs, then played easily his best hockey since the draft, collecting five goals and 15 points in 15 games during the Allsvenskan post-season.

Signed to his three-year entry-level contract by the Canucks, Lekkerimaki will spend next season on loan to Orebro in the top-flight SHL, where his head coach will be former NHL goalie Johan Hedberg, who is a guest coach this week in Vancouver.

“I think it was an important year,” Lekkerimaki said Monday when asked about last season. “I learned a lot, so I don’t think it was a lost year.

“I mean, I tried my best to get points. But when the points don’t come, you have to rely on other things. I think I learned when the points don’t come, I have to do other things to help the team win — win puck battles, play it to the D and get pucks out of our zone. Maybe not the fun part of the game, but important.”

He said he has never had a season so disrupted by injuries.

“No, I’d never been through something like that,” Lekkerimaki said. “It was not good, but sometimes it happens. I think learned from it.”

Lekkerimaki conceded he feels “a little more relaxed” at this camp compared to last year’s and that his strong finish to a difficult season restored his confidence.

“It was nice to play that good again,” he said.

The Canucks are going to need Lekkerimaki in a couple of years. 

The wings may be a position of strength for Vancouver at the NHL level right now, but Brock Boeser and Conor Garland have been — and probably will continue to be — subjects of trade conjecture. Anthony Beauvillier is a free agent after next season, while Andrei Kuzmenko is under contract for only two more years. Another first-round pick, Vasily Podkolzin, is still trying to establish himself in the NHL four years after his draft.

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“I saw a lot of skills,” Samuelsson said of his initial observations of Lekkerimaki. “I saw offensive-zone touch, like he has a great shot. All those things. But I also saw a young boy. A lot of things happened with him last summer, like just to be drafted was big for him. He has to come here, he has to be social with both media and teammates. Both on and off the ice, he took steps and he will keep taking steps.”

Johnson said: “He faced a lot of adversity, which again, for a young man to get through that. . . then finish off the way he did, I think will give him an extreme amount of confidence moving forward. We were proud of him because he faced a lot in a span of eight months. 

“He’s a guy that we just want to give the right guidance, but it’s going to take time for him to get stronger naturally. It’s not going to be an overnight thing. But, obviously, we think very highly of him and are excited for his future with us.”

Still excited.

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