Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s season is officially over due to a foot injury

This season has gone from bad to worse for the Vancouver Canucks’ 2022 first-round pick Jonathan Lekkerimäki.

If you click on this site often, you are quite aware that Lekkerimäki has not had a great season in his first year after being drafted 15th overall by the Canucks at the 2022 NHL draft. Lekkerimäki has posted just three goals and six assists in 29 Allsvenskan games while having one goal and seven assists through 14 World Junior games with Sweden through two World Junior Championships.

Lekkerimäki suffered a concussion back in November, had mono in March, and now you can add a foot injury to his unfortunate run of events over the past 12 months.

Early Tuesday morning, or middle of the day on Tuesday in Sweden, his Allsvenskan club Djurgården announced that Lekkerimäki had suffered a foot injury during training and that after medical evaluation, it was determined that Lekkerimäki will miss eight weeks with his injury.

Fans are already beginning to make the Olli Juolevi comparisons online, but the hope is that the concussion and foot injury will not be as major as Juolevi’s ongoing hip and knee injuries.

Lekkerimäki still has a lot of skill but relies on his speed to create space for his skill to shine. This foot injury surely doesn’t help his cause for a comeback in the second half of the season. It’s at an unfortunate time as we just spoke to Lekkerimäki last week and he mentioned that with all of the craziness of 2022 behind him, he was very excited to settle down and just play hockey.

“It was tough for me in the beginning,” said Lekkerimäki when we asked him about his busy 2022. “The summer had a lot. Now it’s just nice to focus on Djurgården and try to be my best every day. It was tough at the beginning but I think I’ve found it now, so I’ll just keep going from this.”

Just as the 18-year-old believed he had “found it”, he will now miss eight weeks and ultimately, the remainder of the Allsvenskan season.

Lekkerimäki may be able to join Djurgården if they go on a long playoff run. But his team is currently sixth in the Allsvenskan and doesn’t look like they will be able to challenge some of the top teams in the league. They have been wildly inconsistent this season and will now miss the chance of seeing Lekkerimäki turn things around and help carry his team on a late push.

It’s going to be a long offseason for Lekkerimäki as he prepares for the 2023-24 year. The kid has seen a ton of setbacks in his draft plus one season but there’s still hope for him to bounce back and showcase his skill over the next 12 months as he is very excited to “be that guy” for Sweden as they host the World Juniors in December.

We will keep you up to date with all the latest news on Canucks prospects here at CanucksArmy.