Prospect Info: Jonathan Lekkerimaki, #15 Overall, 2022 NHL Draft

[VanJack]

I agree that NHL teams in this cap-strapped world are rushing their prospects on ELC's into the NHL as fast as they can. And it's happening to the serious detriment of these players' careers.

The reality is, that very few 18-19 year old kids have the skill or physical maturity to be force-fed into the NHL. And they risk injury and stagnating development.

A couple of seasons in the AHL or maybe playing two or three seasons in a European pro league almost always is better training ground for drafted players.

You look at a player like Kuzmenko.....would he be having the success that he's having today if he'd come over here as a 20-year old, instead of playing six seasons in the KHL? Not likely.

That's why the Canucks should just leave Hoglander, Podkolzin, Klimovich, Silovs and even Lekkerimaki in Abbotsford. When they're starting to dominate at that level--then bring them up

 

[Nucker101]

 

[Szechwan]

The guy is playing wjc games right now and there's v zero discussion about his play aside from a single 5 second Twitter clip.. What are we doing in here?

Watching him vs the Swiss right now, he's no longer on a line with Ohgren and Ostlund. Hard to tell where he's ended up though because for some reason the Swedes have completely removed names from their jerseys in lieu of a giant ugly-ass Ad.

He's still getting a decent amount of pp time, but in the Horvat slot area, which he seems a bit miscast for. He's found a couple soft spots for chances, but the Swiss play a tight box so there isn't a lot of room in there.

 

[DFAC]

The whole Swedish team looks like hot doo doo atm

 

[ChilliBilly]

yeah, instead of all the whining, how about how he's playing today. From what I have seen (not a lot mind you) he's looked just fine.

 

[Szechwan]

No ice in the last 5 min of a tie game, not a great sign for how the coaching staff sees him.

 

[VanJack]

Despite all the pumping of tires by TSN, this world junior tournament is meh for me. Maybe it's fact that last tournament was played in the middle of summer only six months ago.

Or maybe it's the scandal at Hockey Canada involving the players on past WJHC teams. Or maybe the fact that Russia has been banned along with Belarus--and there's no indication the ban will be lifted anytime soon.

I guess the early games will feature the usual beat-downs on the likes of Austria and Latvia. The Czechs, Slovaks and Germans are in the next tier--but not all that competitive with the big dogs.

I might begin to watch when they hit the semi's.

 

[Szechwan]

Aaand no ice in OT.

VS the Swiss.

In the Prelims.

Shit

 

[andora]

Did the ref say it was kicked in?.. interesting end

Good to see pettersson though with a good chance

 

[MS]

View attachment 625954

That's actually pretty good drafting.

1 top-50 pick in that entire time and they pulled 3 pretty quality regular NHL players out of the dregs of the draft (Addison, Gustafsson, Sprong).

 

[Yultron]

Now everyone is going to be happy now that he had 1 goal and 1 assist in the world juniors

 

[Bgav]

Kids shot is filthy

 

[nuxnux1]

Now everyone is going to be happy now that he had 1 goal and 1 assist in the world juniors

Goal against Austria in an 11-0 blowout, everyone back on the hype train!!!

 

[Pip]

That's actually pretty good drafting.

1 top-50 pick in that entire time and they pulled 3 pretty quality regular NHL players out of the dregs of the draft (Addison, Gustafsson, Sprong).

People far too often don’t look at pick quality (and quantity) when assessing drafting records.

 

[MS]

People far too often don’t look at pick quality (and quantity) when assessing drafting records.

Same way basically this entire fanbase thought Gillis was terrible for not getting players at #28 overall but that Benning was some sort of savant for going 50% on top-10 picks.

Drafting ‘success’ is mostly just draft position and high picks and if you don’t have those casuals will basically always think your drafting sucks.

 

[Nucker101]

That's actually pretty good drafting.

1 top-50 pick in that entire time and they pulled 3 pretty quality regular NHL players out of the dregs of the draft (Addison, Gustafsson, Sprong).

I guess so. Also sounds better to say one top 50 pick instead of 8 top 61 picks.


I’d rather have one impact player over several replacement value players though(jury is still out on Addison of course).

 

[Huhu]

Watching the GER-SWE game, seems like Lekkerimaki's positioning is always between the circles, where he floats around and doesn't touch the puck much because he's 2-3 deep in coverage. Probably due to coaching deployment though.

 

[sting101]

Definitely low expectations from picks outside the top50 to be good NHLers but considering that your not gonna bat 100% inside the top50 you absolutely need to have some Bieksa's and Hansen's along the way

And @MS Gillis still produced the worst expected results of any team in the NHL during his reign. Ironically the Bruins were barely ahead of him with the super scout in the management team but it's not a excuse to just say he drafted late. Hodgson Schroeder Jensen Gaunce Sauve Shinkaruk Mallet Rodin all fell flat with an expectation of being useful pieces most of them didnt even help raise the competitive balance on our farm team or were in Hodgson's case o royal pain in the ass silver spooner who actually had their agent tell Gillis they should move one of the best 2 way players in the game Kesler to the wing to accommodate him in a top6 role.

It's not an indictment of management(Gillis) to not nail down later picks but it is an indictment of a shit scouting staff that had become largely a retirement community for ex NHLers to collect a paycheck without much accountability. He knew this coming in as it was a big discussion point in this market and never did much to change it. Even stupid head JB made a bunch of changes by yr2 of his reign of error. Anyway getting off topic...

Teams like TB Dallas and Boston have built their teams off poor drafting expected results BOS with Marchand Lucic Bergeron Krecji Carlo Pastrnak DALL with Robertson Oettinger Hintz Lindell Klingberg or how about TB with Palat Kucherov Cirelli Point Killorn.

Really need something good from the post 50 picks every 3 or 4 years and even 15-50 have to level out with good results or your salary cap is gonna be inflated or potentially disastrous if you get saddled to a few anchors

 

[mathonwy]

Watching the GER-SWE game, seems like Lekkerimaki's positioning is always between the circles, where he floats around and doesn't touch the puck much because he's 2-3 deep in coverage. Probably due to coaching deployment though.

He is getting 0 touches.

What ya gonna do.

 

[sting101]

Related to Lekkerimaki.... as disappointing as this is to see him play such a small role on Swedens 4th line and the bumper on the PP where his puck handling and creativity isn't on display i have really liked his precision when he does get touches. Came very close to ripping one over the glove with a deadly shot early in the game and had a couple beautiful set ups to his hack line mates.

If i'm the coach of Sweden i would be awfully close to pulling Lysell off that line with Ostlund and Ohgren and re uniting the trio. All that speed and twisting and turning from Lysell and then coming up lame in high danger areas. Has to be a bit frustrating riding shot gun with that 1 man show. And not to keep harping on the kid but that penalty shot was awful. Skates directly at the goalie without changing the angle or making him move off his positioning was pretty poor

 

[topched88]

There isn't much way you cut it, if you have a guy drafted top 15 for the purposes of being an offensive impact player, and hes getting 4th line minutes in his D + 1 year at the world juniors its not good.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Same way basically this entire fanbase thought Gillis was terrible for not getting players at #28 overall but that Benning was some sort of savant for going 50% on top-10 picks.

Drafting ‘success’ is mostly just draft position and high picks and if you don’t have those casuals will basically always think your drafting sucks.

No one gave Gillis shit for not getting good players with the picks he had, but for basically not getting any NHL players at all. Even accounting for draft position and quantity of picks the Canucks drafted significantly better in the Benning era.

 

[sting101]

No one gave Gillis shit for not getting good players with the picks he had, but for basically not getting any NHL players at all. Even accounting for draft position and quantity of picks the Canucks drafted significantly better in the Benning era.

Yes we went from terrible to below average with a colossal failure to develop and put prospects in positions to succeed.

If we cant do better than either of those regimes were going nowhere.

 

[theguardianII]

No one gave Gillis shit for not getting good players with the picks he had, but for basically not getting any NHL players at all. Even accounting for draft position and quantity of picks the Canucks drafted significantly better in the Benning era.

Gillis, 2 for 2 drafting in the top ten, #10 and #9
Benning 2 for 4 drafting in the top ten, 1 for 3 drafting in the top 6. No other GM in NHL history has missed 2 out of 3 top 6 picks, none.

For all that Benning is getting your love, who has he drafted outside of the first round? Hoglander? 7 years of drafting for a losing team? That 2014 draft was all Gillis except the first pick. Benning had no time to go over all the scouting reports for all the players the Canucks had pinpointed for the Gillis plan.

He did get the GM of the Year award as selected by his peers, Benning got what the "jakas of the year" behind closed doors? He was so bad nobody could figure it out it had to be some other reason right? I mean nobody ruins their reputation like that under instructions, to go through the rest of your life as the worst ever NHL GM ever.

As far as giving Gillis shit, when he left he was getting crap for the weather it was so bad and last 6 years after he was gone, it still lingers 9 years later

 

[bandwagonesque]

Gillis, 2 for 2 drafting in the top ten, #10 and #9
Benning 2 for 4 drafting in the top ten, 1 for 3 drafting in the top 6. No other GM in NHL history has missed 2 out of 3 top 6 picks, none.

For all that Benning is getting your love, who has he drafted outside of the first round? Hoglander? 7 years of drafting for a losing team? That 2014 draft was all Gillis except the first pick. Benning had no time to go over all the scouting reports for all the players the Canucks had pinpointed for the Gillis plan.

He did get the GM of the Year award as selected by his peers, Benning got what the "jakas of the year" behind closed doors? He was so bad nobody could figure it out it had to be some other reason right? I mean nobody ruins their reputation like that under instructions, to go through the rest of your life as the worst ever NHL GM ever.

As far as giving Gillis shit, when he left he was getting crap for the weather it was so bad and last 6 years after he was gone, it still lingers 9 years later

Almost none of this has anything to do with what I said. I didn't claim Benning was a good GM or anything but a far worse GM than Gillis.