Vancouver Canucks assign top prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki to AHL Abbotsford

The 19-year-old sharpshooter tallied 19 goals through 46 SHL games with Orebro HK this season and is expected to get the call from Team Sweden for the IIHF World Championship in a little over a month. In the meantime, he’ll spend some time with Abbotsford.

“It would be awesome, it’s always been a dream to play for the national team,” Lekkerimäki told Canucks.com. “It is a challenge. Everyone is better, [they are] at higher speed and [have] bigger guys. So, it would be challenging, of course, but we will have to see what happens.”

Per the Canucks’ in-house reporter Chris Faber, Lekkerimäki will practice with the Abbotsford Canucks, and could even suit up for a game with the team. Abbotsford practices tomorrow before heading out on the road to face the Colorado Eagles on Friday and Saturday.

“We are happy to have a chance to work more closely with Jonathan over the next little while,” said Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin. “Jeremy Colliton and his staff as well as our development team have done a great job in helping our players the past couple of seasons. We have seen a number of guys including Nils Höglander, Vasily Podkolzin, Linus Karlsson and Arshdeep Bains benefit from spending time in the AHL and developing their skillset. Over the next few weeks, Jonathan has a great opportunity to learn more about the North American game and our organization.”

“I’m excited, it’s going to be really fun,” Lekkerimäki said about coming to North America. “It is my dream to play in the NHL and if I get a chance for that, I will do everything to prepare for that to be my future. That said, right now my focus is learning as much as I can from my time with the Abbotsford Canucks.”

The Canucks selected Lekkerimäki with the 15th overall pick of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.