The Vancouver Canucks have signed their 2022 first-round draft choose.
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Recent off a powerful playoff efficiency, Jonathan Lekkerimaki has put pen to paper on a typical three-year entry degree contract with the Vancouver Canucks.
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Canucks GM Patrik Allvin made the announcement in a Saturday morning press launch.
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“Jonathan had an excellent run within the playoffs and gained lots of precious expertise however sadly his staff fell wanting its final purpose,” Allvin mentioned in an announcement.
The Canucks drafted Lekkerimaki within the first spherical of final summer time’s NHL Entry Draft. The younger Swede struggled for a lot of the common season however clearly discovered his means within the playoffs as he posted 15 factors, together with 5 targets, in 15 video games for Djurgårdens within the Allsvenksan playoffs.
Djurgårdens misplaced in recreation seven of the ultimate spherical to Modo.
Lekkerimaki advised reporters on the draft final summer time in Montreal that his favorite participant was the Canucks’ personal Elias Pettersson.
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“That wrist shot. Good release,” he said.
At the draft, Allvin compared Lekkerimaki to his countryman Lucas Raymond of the Detroit Red Wings.
“He’s a dynamic player. He has the ability to score goals, but also make a lot of plays. I think his hockey sense is great. And he’s a threat in so many different ways there,” he said.
But Lekkerimaki’s regular season didn’t go to plan. He scored just three goals in 29 games for Djurgårdens and was even demoted to the club’s J20 team at one point.
Scoring so few goals post-draft stood out, since he scored seven goals in 26 games in 2021-22 for Djurgårdens, who were in the Swedish Hockey League that season. In other words, he did worse this past season in a weaker league; Djurgårdens had been demoted to the second-division Allsvenskan for 2022-23.
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And at the World Juniors, Lekkerimaki struggled, scoring just one goal in seven games for Sweden.
Allvin offered up a comment on Lekkerimaki’s shaky course as part of his Saturday statement.
“Each player’s development path is different and in Jonathan’s case, he had to deal with a lot of adversity this past year. But with each challenge he faced, he found a way to learn and grow. With the help of our staff, we will find the best path forward for him and we look forward to Jonathan joining our development camp in July,” Allvin said.
Lekkerimaki also suffered through a bad case of mononucleosis in February and March of 2022 and the Canucks have said it took him a long time to fully recover.
But that take is also somewhat uneven, given Lekkerimaki starred at the World U18s a couple months later: he scored five goals and added 10 assists in six games at the annual tournament.
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Where he’s playing next year isn’t yet known: he could stay in Sweden and switch to a team in the SHL or he could come over to North America to play in the AHL with the Abbotsford Canucks. Or, of course, he could surprise everyone and win a spot with the NHL Canucks, though that’s the longest of shots given the depth the Canucks already have on the wings.
The biggest thing that Lekkerimaki still needs to work on his getting to the inside and finding scoring opportunities in tough spaces. The player himself acknowledged this at the draft and so did outside observers.
“He needs to develop higher pace away from the puck and find a way to create shooting opportunities for himself, for starters. Just a higher engagement rate when the puck isn’t on his stick would do wonders for his game. You start there and then you try to play a little more on the inside,” Elite Prospects editor in chief J.D. Burke told Postmedia in January.
Lekkerimaki’s three-year cap hit will only begin once he’s played 10 games in the NHL.
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Originally posted 2023-05-06 19:08:46.
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