Jonathan Lekkerimaki Entering Pivotal Year With Canucks

That doesn’t mean Lekkerimaki should be written off as a contender to make the Canucks roster, of course, but what it does mean is that the 22-year-old may not be optimally positioned to finally deliver on the upside he’s routinely flashed at lower levels.

While injuries have scuttled any chance for Lekkerimaki to build consistent developmental momentum, he has, without question, succeeded at multiple stops on his hockey journey. In 2023-24, Lekkerimaki joined Örebro HK in the SHL on loan, and scored a very strong 19 goals and 31 points in 46 games.

The following year, 2024-25, Lekkerimaki made his debut in North America and showed he was more than capable of succeeding on this side of the Atlantic. He scored 19 goals and 28 points in his first 36 AHL games, helping the AHL Canucks capture a Calder Cup title.

This past season, he was similarly effective in the AHL (13 goals, 20 points in 21 games) but had just three points in 13 NHL games on an admittedly weak Canucks team. As a 5’11” offensive winger, the path for Lekkerimaki to become an impactful NHL player appears rather narrow at this time. Unless he totally reinvents his game to prioritize defensive and two-way play, he’ll need to score in order to maintain a lineup spot. Thus far, he’s done so at every level except for the NHL.

Thankfully for Vancouver, Lekkerimaki does have an additional season of waivers exemption, so they’ll be able to send him down to Abbotsford to develop further without risking losing him to another club on the waiver wire.

Of course, there is also the chance that Lekkerimaki makes the Canucks out of camp. The report from Drance does raise questions as to whether he’d be best suited beginning his season in the NHL, but the reality is that Vancouver isn’t exactly overflowing with high-end NHL forward talent. There is a clear opportunity to win a spot on the wing for the team, perhaps on a third line alongside Filip Chytil and Drew O’Connor. But he’ll have to compete with more experienced options to win a role with the team, including 26-year-olds Paul Cotter and Max Sasson, as well as top-end AHL scorer Trey Fix-Wolansky.

Lekkerimaki does have one crucial factor that is ostensibly working in his favor: the head coach. Vancouver fired former coach Adam Foote and replaced him with Manny Malhotra, a rookie NHL bench boss who previously served as head coach in Abbotsford. He should be highly familiar with Lekkerimaki, and he got to see the winger up close, at his most effective. But if Lekkerimaki can’t secure a spot in Malhotra’s lineup, either breaking camp with the team or through an early-season call-up, that might raise questions about the winger’s place in the team’s future plans.

It’s worth noting that public sphere evaluators remain mixed about Lekkerimaki’s future. Some are more optimistic, such as Stephen Ellis of Daily Faceoff, who ranked Lekkerimaki as the No. 2 prospect in the Canucks’ system, writing he still has “plenty of high-end potential to go around.” That more optimistic take was shared by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic in the middle of last season, who put Lekkerimaki No. 1 in the Canucks’ system and wrote that his “talent is undeniable.” Wheeler projected Lekkerimaki as a potential top-six forward and finisher for a first power play unit.

Other evaluators have been more mixed on Lekkerimaki’s future. Elite Prospects scout Kareem Elshafey noted last month that Lekkerimaki’s “game hasn’t translated” to the NHL level yet. Corey Pronman of The Athletic took a far more pessimistic view of the player than his colleague at The Athletic, ranking him all the way down at No. 13 among Canucks youngsters in his recent pipeline rankings.

Pronman called Lekkerimaki a “very talented but highly frustrating player” who “has a high-end shot” but is also “a good-not-great skater and small winger who shies away from the net front and doesn’t play overly hard.” According to Pronman, “it’s not clear his talent is so good he can play that way at the NHL level.”

At this time, it’s unclear which evaluation of Lekkerimaki’s NHL future will prove more accurate. What is clear, though, is that the answers to those questions could become a lot more obvious in 2026-27, which is shaping up to be a crucial season for the 2022 first-rounder’s future with the Canucks.

Photos Courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images