Jonathan Lekkerimäki

July 2022 – Lekkerimäki has been selected by the Vancouver Canucks with the 15th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Nick Richard

December 2021 – Lekkerimäki has been a force for Djurgårdens’ J20 squad so far this year, leading the team in points and leading all J20 Nationell draft-eligibles in goal scoring. The only draft-eligible in the league with a higher points per game average so far this season is teammate Liam Öhgren who has spent the majority of his season playing with the SHL club. Nick Richard

October 2021 – Lekkerimäki drove the team’s offense and played a big role for Sweden at the 2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. The Swedish national team won a bronze medal and the 5-11 winger ended up with five goals in five games. He played on the first line throughout the tournament and was the team’s best goal scorer. He scored three of those five goals against Russia in the quarterfinals and finished fourth in overall tournament scoring –  tied with Joakim Kemell and behind Dalibor Dvorsky and Matvei Michkov. He has been dominant through the early part of the J20 Nationell season, scoring 11 goals in the first 10 games of the campaign.

Lekkerimäki is a highly-skilled winger who reads the game well and plays at a high pace with impressive intelligence and situational awareness. He is a huge threat on the powerplay and is eager to shoot the puck as much as he can. Defenders better look after him properly, because Lekkerimäki is a cold-blooded killer who will fire heavy one-timers to terrorize opposing goaltenders. His shot is a dangerous weapon and he doesn’t miss the net very often. The Swedish winger has great hands and you can usually see him making nice dekes in every game. He really doesn’t care about how many opponents are around him, he knows he has the ability to cut through them like a hot knife through butter. Lekkerimäki is able to carry the puck end-to-end and lead the rush and also has the versatility to be used on the PK. Lekkerimäki can be physical and his puck protection skills are solid. Marek Novotny