The Vancouver Canucks have recalled Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Cole McWard, and Max Sasson from the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. The club also put Filip Hronek on Long Term Injured Reserve. General manager Patrik Allvin made the announcement late Thursday morning.

Lekkerimäki has suited up in five NHL games this season, debuting against the Calgary Flames back on November 12th. Lekkerimäki scored the first goal of his NHL career in his second game against the New York Islanders. While Lekkerimäki showed plenty of promise, there didn’t seem to be a path to playing regular top six minutes, and it felt like the right move to send him back to Abbotsford with a solid idea of what he needs to work on.

The Canucks sent Max Sasson down to Abbotsford yesterday, but as we can see now, this was done to increase their cap accrual rate. Sasson tallied two points in his five-game stint with the Canucks.

With Hronek hitting LTIR, the Canucks had the roster room to call up right-shot defenceman Cole McWard. This move is certainly an intriguing one, as McWard, 23, hasn’t appeared in a regular season NHL game since November 28th, 2023, when he logged just over 9 minutes of ice time in the Canucks’ 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Before that, McWard appeared in five games at the end of the 2022-23 season after signing with the Canucks as an NCAA free agent.

McWard is known for his puck moving and skating ability, and got a long look alongside Quinn Hughes during the 2023-24 preseason. With Hronek out and the Canucks electing to go with a “by committee” approach to giving Hughes a defence partner, it will be interesting to see where McWard slots in.

The end result of these moves is that the Canucks will pause their accrual of cap space on practice/game days since they’re now. We expect to see them cycle these three waiver-exempt players up and down from the AHL on non-game days, just as they did with Sasson yesterday and as they’ve been doing with players like Aatu Räty and Arshdeep Bains all season long. Once JT Miller, Derek Forbort, and Thatcher Demko return, this won’t be necessary any longer.

The Canucks practice later today, and we’ll have full coverage coming later this afternoon, so keep it locked on CanucksArmy.com!