It’s been a solid start to the SHL season for 19-year-old Jonathan Lekkerimäki.
The 2022 first-round pick has played with more consistency in his home country’s top men’s league scoring nine goals through 21 SHL games. With the World Juniors firing up later this month, the Swedish winger is looking to be a key player for Tre Kronor.
Last year, in his draft-plus-one season, Lekkerimäki battled multiple injuries as well as mononucleosis that made training and adding weight challenging. This past summer was much different. The young Lekkerimäki finished off his 2022-23 year with a strong showing in the Allsvenskan playoffs – notching a point-per-game pace with five goals and 10 assists in 15 games as his club ultimately lost in the finals. That set him up with some confidence and a clean bill of health heading into the summer as he was about to make the transition back into the SHL.
Good health was the biggest difference this past offseason. Lekkerimäki was able to be in the gym much more consistently and was able to put on more muscle ahead of the season.
“It was a big difference,” said Lekkerimäki when he spoke about his offseason training. “Last summer, I couldn't work out as good as I could this year, so I feel more prepared this year. I think I can work harder and be more competitive this year because of the great summer training.”
This summer gave Lekkerimäki his second chance to go to Canucks’ development camp and work with some of the development coaches. There were two coaches that stuck out to Lekkerimäki.
“Of course, the Sedins,” said Lekkerimäki with a laugh. “They were really skilled players, and I took away a lot of the things they told me. They were such good players and they're so humble. It feels good to have them around me.”
The teenager has worked hard on his release, something that hasn’t escaped the attention of Canucks’ developmental coach Mikael Samuelsson, who works alongside Lekkerimäki in Sweden. When asked, Samuelsson spoke a bit about the deception in Lekkerimäki’s shot.
“I haven't seen Connor Bedard live but Lekky is right up there,” said Samuelsson. “It's not a shot you see every day. The way it comes off the stick, between defencemen’s legs in stride, and also, it's not only the release, but he picks corners. He can also deke guys. It looks like he’s going to shoot it and then he dekes, he doesn't show where he’s going to shoot it at all.”
Samuelsson being on the ground in Sweden has been good for Lekkerimäki to have a seasoned veteran to bounce questions off. Samuelsson spoke about his role with the Canucks being a position where his goal is to prepare players for their move to play pro hockey in North America. He wants to help prospects in their development and spoke about development being two steps forward and one step back a lot of the time. Samuelsson wants to help lessen the step back and continue to allow these players to build their game for North America.
“There are areas on the rink where Lekky is exceptional but his overall game, we still need some improvement in certain areas,” said Samuelsson. “Lekky knows about it, and we are talking about it. The organization, myself and him are staying patient with it. He’s staying focused and doing what he can control but he is staying patient. If it happens in two months or happens in a year, it's not that important. We want all of our players to be ready tomorrow but that's not reality. And that's now how it goes down.”
There’s a huge benefit to having a development coach on the ground in Sweden and it certainly helps that Samuelsson has 13 years of NHL experience to share with the prospects.
And from my conversation with Samuelsson, I can tell you that he’s not sugar-coating his development assistance with the prospects.
“He’s very honest,” said Lekkerimäki with a chuckle. “He shows me things and those things have improved. We have a good relationship. I trust him a lot and I like working with him.”
Samuelsson emphasized Lekkerimäki improving his play on the boards and trusting his physicality more even though he is a smaller player. Samuelsson thought that Lekkerimäki’s stick-work on the boards was exceptional but that type of checking isn’t as effective in the NHL. There’s been an effort from Samuelsson to instill more physicality on the boards from Lekkerimäki and if he can combine his strong stick work with some physicality, that will give him success in the NHL corners.
As much as the shot is his strength, something you can immediately see when you watch Lekkerimäki play is his motor to find open shooting areas around the net.
Lekkerimäki spoke about what he’s currently focused on improving in his game.
“One-on-one battles on the boards and play around the net,” said Lekkerimäki. “I want to find areas that I can shoot as soon as I get the puck, so I think I need to move my feet to get to those areas. “I want to be stronger without the puck and stronger defensively. I’ll be taking away the body more and more.”
We’ve seen an evolution in the 19-year-old winger’s game in which he is committed to being a player who not only produces on the scoresheet but is now an effective player in multiple areas of the ice. And though we have seen an evolution, the road still has a long way to go before the destination is met. The goal-scoring is great, but Samuelsson is making sure Lekkerimäki works hard at improving all areas of his game as development is not linear. Mikael Samuelsson is preaching patience with this kid as he builds the pillars of his game in the SHL as a teenager.
“When he has the puck on his stick, good things happen,” said Samuelsson. “Can he just pop off and walk off the rink with two or three points? He definitely could. But how is he going to be even more involved in every game? It’s a grind, and it’s a learning experience to be able to carry the puck up the ice, hit guys, and win board battles. This is preparation over years, and you have to take it as baby steps. It’s not going to happen overnight, not what I’m talking about because these are big areas. That’s why you have to be in a good environment because it takes a long time, and you must be patient with that development.”
On the world stage, the World Junior Championships kick off later this month and Lekkerimäki is projected to play right wing on Sweden’s top line. There will be power play time for the Canucks draft pick and he’s now been there and done that with the WJC. In fact, he’s already done it twice. Lekkerimäki played in the summer COVID World Juniors, last year’s World Juniors in the Maritimes and now he will be on home ice for his third and final run at a gold medal.
Samuelsson said that this World Juniors is going to be different for Lekkerimäki.
“He’s been there a couple of times, so he knows [about the tournament] but this time, he’s the guy that other teams have to respect – they've got to know about him,” said Samuelsson.
The expectation from Samuelsson isn’t for Lekkerimäki to lead the tournament in goals but instead, his expectation is for the youngster to be involved and be consistently creating scoring chances for his linemates while being stable in the defensive zone and using some of the things that they have worked on in board battles. Playing against players your own age is certainly different than being in Sweden’s top men’s league and this tournament will give Lekkerimäki a chance to use some of those board battle things that he and Samuelsson have been talking about.
Though this upcoming World Juniors is a time for Lekkerimäki to challenge himself against his peers, the development coaches know that this is still a slow burn for the teenager. The scoring improvement in the SHL has been nice to see but there’s still work to be done before the first-round pick is ready to make an impact on the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup. Lekkerimäki signed a three-year entry-level contract on May 6th of 2023 but his contract slides with him currently being loaned out to Örebro in the SHL.
Shooting and handling the puck comes easy to this kid and he will continue to round out his game so that one day he can be an impact player for the Vancouver Canucks. With the assistance of Mikael Samuelsson and the rest of the development team, the work will be done to give Lekkerimäki the best chance to succeed in North America.
