Welcome to Stars of the Week, a brand-new series here at CanucksArmy! Every week we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below.
We saw four preseason tilts this week against the Seattle Kraken and Calgary Flames, where the Canucks managed to post a 2-2-0 record and beat any notion of a preseason curse, just for good measure. So far, we’ve witnessed some great highlights from potential future pieces for the organization, clutch moves from possible contenders to crack the opening night lineup, and Tyler Myers becoming the most hated man in Seattle.
So, which of these stars shone the brightest this week? Let’s get into it.

Aatu Räty

Aatu Räty is here, he’s NHL-ready, and he’s about to make a lot of you take up Finnish on Duolingo. It’s pronounced Ah-tu Rah-tu, people!
The 21-year-old centre has been patiently waiting for his big break since he arrived in Vancouver via the New York Islanders at the 2023 trade deadline. Like an understudy yearning for the stage after a taste of Broadway stardom, Räty played 15 NHL games between the Islanders and Canucks in 2022/2023 and has committed to working his way back there. He spent the full season with the Abbotsford Canucks last year and has been noticeably putting the work in to bag a more permanent promotion to the NHL.
Rick Tocchet seems to agree, remarking that Räty is now playing at “Another level,” and even had to tell him to slow down in practice and save his energy ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Kraken. Imagine being so locked in on the grindset that you grind too hard for the grindset founder. That’s commitment.
Räty made his first splash during Vancouver’s first power play at home against Seattle, assisting on a beauty of a tic-tac-toe play with Linus Karlsson and Nils Höglander. After the game, Räty chose to elaborate on this goal in the best way.
Way to gain brownie points by speaking to the wonders of Vancouver’s minor-league development system. Some people may call it being a teacher’s pet, but I call it strategic deployment of favouritism.
Räty continued to perform well from there, playing Wednesday night against the Flames, and then again on Saturday when he notched his first preseason goal.
He hasn’t looked remotely afraid to shoot the puck at a calculated pace so far, and this 2-on-1 with him and Conor Garland looks like a well-oiled machine.
With Teddy Blueger injured for the time being, Räty has been playing second-line centre minutes, and moved up to the first line on Saturday night, for good reason. Räty adds significant centre depth to a Canucks team that could certainly use his prowess on the penalty kill and in the faceoff circle, and went 25/44 (56.8%) on the draw this week (excluding Wednesday night’s game, which statistics are not available). His only real competition for a 3C or 4C spot is Nils Åman and Pius Suter, both more likely NHL lock-ins than him, though Räty has arguably out-performed them both this week. While Teddy Blueger is hopeful that he can return to the lineup by opening night, Räty still has his hat (helmet?) in the ring.
Everyone better add an umlaut shortcut to their keyboard shortcuts, because something tells me we’ll be typing out Aatu Räty’s name quite a bit this season.

Daniel Sprong

This is one player who has been skating with a Sprong in his step this week.
I’m not sorry for that one. Neither is he.
The 27-year-old winger scored the power play goal heard around the world on Wednesday night when he drove the puck down the ice from the d-zone, single-handedly Matrix-d his way around four Flames players, and tied the game up with just fourteen seconds left in the third. The Canucks would go on to win 4-3 in overtime.
My apologies, Daniel Sprong. I wasn’t familiar with your game. If we’re talking clutch, this goal is standard transmission.
He could have landed on this list thanks to this goal alone, but Sprong has been impressive in his two appearances this week. He’s made excellent passes to generate some solid shot opportunities, whether they’re successfully converted on or not, and ripped some solid shots himself. There’s little hesitation with the puck when it comes to Sprong, like on Saturday, with a nifty assist on Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s slightly confusing first goal in a Canucks uniform. But more on that in a second.
While Sprong has been deployed on the second line thus far, it remains to be seen whether he’s capable of securing a top-six role come October. There’s more to that job than an impressive set of hands, and his defensive blind spots are part of why he’s been Around the World in 80 Teams already. Sprong’s talents might be used best sparingly and strategically moving forward, likely on the second power play unit.
The best part of all this? With a $975,000 cap hit, Sprong currently takes up just 1.1% of Vancouver’s cap ceiling. While we’ve all been living in 2024, Patrik Allvin has been busy operating in 3024. If Sprong keeps it up with these highlight reel moments, you won’t need a Business 101 credit under your belt to pull off that cost-benefit analysis.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki

This Shooting Star has finally arrived on the scene.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki has been the talk of the town since the beginning of training camp. It is no secret that the expectations are high for the young right winger, who was Vancouver’s 15th overall pick in 2022.
I could go ahead and be “not like other girls,” as the hip kids are saying, and select a less obvious choice for the third star of the week. But I would be lying to myself, to you, and all of dignified society if I said I didn’t think Lekkerimäki was a standout player this week. Yes, he already has the hype, but sometimes you don’t have to be contrarian to be cool. Lekkerimäki is certainly delivering as promised already: he’s an intuitive player with a much-discussed wicked shot, a key power play contributor, quick-witted with his neutral zone play, and mindful on zone entries.
Lekkerimäki had three points in as many games this week, playing back-to-back in Tuesday and Wednesday’s wins, and in Saturday night’s loss. He’s been given these minutes to make an early impression, but also to test what his resilience might look like against a relentless schedule.
His first few shifts against Seattle on Tuesday were nothing terrible, but definitely not exceptional. He struggled with puck possession and had an unfortunate defensive zone turnover. Perhaps he had the first day of school jitters. Thankfully, he must have made some friends on the playground, because he was quickly back to form by the second period.
He notched two assists against the Kraken and his first aforementioned goal just a few days later against the Flames. While it may not be the prettiest goal, it’s his, and every goal can be special like a snowflake if you have a positive attitude.
Lekkerimäki has excellent on-ice awareness and looks quite comfortable anticipating the action around him. By the looks of his confident touch passes this week, he’s not a freshman overwhelmed by the big leagues, but a level-headed kid who can keep up with the senior class.
That said, he doesn’t need to be rushed into anything just yet.
There might be early hopes for the young star, but at 20, Lekkerimaki is old enough to be hailed as the future of the Canucks organization, but not yet old enough to rent a car. Should we trust him with games that matter before we trust him with a 2020 Nissan Versa?
Of course, age is not strictly an indicator of maturity and an NHL-ready player. Time is of the essence in hockey, but we have quite a bit of that remaining in his career. Why rush it? Quality over quantity can make or break rookie development, especially when it comes to a player who has only been in North America for six months. A full season in Abbotsford under new head coach Manny Malhotra may elevate his game further. Who knows, he might join some clubs, a few intramural sports, and he might even audition for the school musical.
Just as he was named against Seattle on Tuesday, Jonathan Lekkerimäki is our third star. I look forward to seeing him at class show-and-tell this week.
Make sure to come back next Sunday for our next round of stars! Until then, don’t forget that when the Canucks win games, we should contact city hall immediately to plan the Cup parade route, and when they lose games, it’s just the preseason and nothing matters.
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