- Lekkerimaki was terrible in the two Colorado games - although, to be fair, the tempo/physicality of those games was a hell of a thing to walk straight into - but better against Manitoba, in his 3rd game in particular. Really struggled with the quickness of play against Colorado, had several occasions where he took an extra second to make a play in his own zone or the neutral zone and was quickly closed off and turned the puck over. Did find more space against Manitoba on Tuesday and got a few good shots away although quieter in the Wednesday again. Overall, a bit of a disappointing debut so far given how strong his play had been in Europe for the past couple months. He's pretty quick and you can see the nice shot release at times but I was a bit caught off-guard by how thin and small he looks on smaller ice against bigger players. Barring a massive offseason it's difficult to imagine him being anywhere close to playing in the NHL next year.
Terrible is a massive overstatement. Yes he was a little bit slower to move the puck through the neutral zone at times, but that was clearly just an adjustment to the smaller ice. In my view it was very refreshing to see a winger with the puck skills to slow things down, curl, and make plays in the neutral zone, which is what Lekkerimaki has been doing. The biggest knock on him so far has been a lack of physicality, which is understandable since he is the youngest and typically lightest player on the ice. Where he has struggled is when the puck is rimmed around the boards in the defensive zone and he has to engage physically with the pinching defenseman to make the play. He mostly just doesn't engage and concedes posession. That said, his all around defensive work has been good. He isn't getting beaten off the point, and has made several good backchecking plays with his speed, or knocking down pucks in the neutral zone. The shot is obviously a weapon, and while he hasn't been shooting as freely as we saw in the WJC, he has 11 (plus a post) through 5 games, so he is definitely getting his chances. He has improved every game, which is all you can hope for from a rookie adjusting to play in North America.
Will he be ready for the NHL next year? The skill level and skating are both there, but he doesn't look physically strong enough for the rigors of the NHL at the moment. That is more an acknowledgement of his size and age than a knock on how he has spent his offseasons so far (he was way more physical in the SHL this year, so there have been improvements). He doesn't really project as a bottom six player at this point, so he would have to have earned a top 6 + PP spot to make it, which does not seem likely.
EP26 is sort of the inverse of this: big, strong, shoots hard, skates pretty well; but I have liked his play far less than Lekkerimaki's so far in terms of his reads and decision making. He needs more skills/systems work to improve rather than to put on strength.