The Vancouver Canucks have signed their top pick in the 2022 NHL Draft to an entry level deal
The Vancouver Canucks have signed their top pick in the 2022 NHL Draft to an entry level deal
The Vancouver Canucks have signed 2022 first round draft pick Jonathan Lekkerimaki to a three-year entry level deal. The 18-year-old is coming off a strong finish to his season registering five goals and 15 points in 15 playoff games for Djurgardens in Sweden's Allsvenskan. That came after a regular season plagued by injury and mono that limited the 15th pick in last year's draft in Montreal to just three goals and nine points in 29 games.
The 5' 11" 172-pound right winger also had one goal and three assists in seven games at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Halifax.
"Jonathan had a good run in the playoffs and gained a lot of valuable experience but unfortunately his team fell short of its ultimate goal," said Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin in a press release on Saturday. "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."
Lekkerimaki's Djurgardens team fell short of promotion to the Swedish Hockey League for next season bowing out to Modo in seven games in the Allsvenskan championship. His 15 points gave him a share of fourth in Allsvenskan playoff scoring and ranked third among Djurgardens skaters just one point off the team lead.
During the finals series against Modo, Lekkerimaki had a five-game point streak posting two goals and eight points over than span. His impressive run included a four-assist performance in Game Four against Modo, the game-winning goal in Game Five, and a helper on the game-tying goal to in Game Six to force overtime in a game Djurgardens won to send the series to a seventh and deciding game.
With Djurgardens remaining in the Allsvenskan for next season, it's believed the Canucks will look to loan Lekkerimaki to a top tier Swedish Hockey League team for the 2023-24 season before bringing him to North America to continue his professional hockey journey.
Lekkerimaki becomes the third member of the Canucks 2022 draft class to sign a contract with the team after defensemen Elias Pettersson and Kirill Kudryatsev had earlier put pen to paper.