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Canucks’ Lekkerimäki back in the gym seven weeks after season-ending shoulder surgery
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Apr 14, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 14, 2026, 00:35 EDT
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Seven weeks since season-ending shoulder surgery, Vancouver Canucks winger Jonathan Lekkerimäki is on the road to recovery. Already in the gym and working on his rehabilitation, the 2022 first-round draft pick is doing his best to find the positives in a season cut short by injury.
The Canucks made the decision just prior to the Olympic break to shut Lekkerimäki down and have his injured right shoulder medically repaired. He says having the surgery in late February will allow him to put in a full summer of training and be completely healthy by the time training camp rolls around in September.
“It was tough when we made the decision, but now I’m just trying to focus on being in the gym, building some muscle and getting back on the ice soon,” Lekkerimäki explained. “It’s slowly getting better.”
Initially injured in a collision in an October 19th game in Washington – the team’s sixth game of the season and his fourth – Lekkerimäki was out for a month before returning to action in Abbotsford in mid-November. He was recalled again at the end of the month for four NHL games before being returned to the minors. 
Lekkermäki earned another big league promotion in late January and played five more games in the NHL, but by that point, it was clear he wasn’t fully healthy, and the decision was made to put a halt to his season.
Overall, Lekkerimäki, who will turn 22 in July, appeared in 13 NHL games this season, scoring twice and adding an assist. In 21 AHL contests, he scored 13 times and registered 20 points. Despite playing in less than a third of the games on the Abbotsford schedule this season, he still finished fourth in team goal scoring – just five goals off the team lead.
While playing through pain and trying to manage the injury, Lekkerimäki says it reached a point where treatment wasn’t helping his recovery. 
“It was bugging me the whole year,” he said. ”I tried to keep up and play with a sling for the season, but it got to a point where it was too risky to play.”
And that’s when the player, in concert with the organization’s medical staff, decided surgery was the best course of action. Appearing at an autograph signing event in North Vancouver on Monday afternoon, Lekkerimäki showed no visual signs of his rehabilitation. He was not wearing a sling or any kind of arm support as he interacted with a crowd of about 100 Canucks fans.
Lekkerimäki says he will return home to Sweden in the coming weeks and continue to work with a team of trainers there as he ramps up his offseason workouts.
“I think I have a good plan for the summer, come back in August and be ready,” he said. “That’s why we didn’t wait for the surgery. I wanted a good summer, a long summer so things should be good.”
Lekkerimäki acknowledged it’s been a trying season on just about every level for everyone associated with the Canucks – both in Vancouver and in Abbotsford. And while disappointed that he had to cut his season short, he wants to believe the surgery was the best course of action that will help him get back to full health. 
He knows the injury cost him an opportunity to play NHL games down the stretch, but he’s trying not to think about that, understanding that his priority now is to get healthy as quickly as he can.
“It’s been tough,” he said. “I wanted to play some games to try to help the team win. I think we can learn a lot from this year and I’m looking forward to next season.”
As the Canucks organization faces the challenge of rebuilding, Jonathan Lekkerimäki certainly figures in the grand plan. The hockey club can desperately use his ability to score goals. He wasn’t able to perform to the best of his ability this season due to an injury. But he’s hoping to be the best version of himself when he reports for duty in the fall.
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