Jonathan Lekkerimaki

U18: Team Sweden vs Team Finland, April 26, 2022: From the first shift of the game Lekkermaki made his presence felt. As the F2 on the forecheck he showed excellent awareness as he judged his width and depth off of Finland’s posted winger. This allowed him to intercept a pass and find an open linemate in the slot for an opportunity 10 seconds into the game. Later in the same shift we loved his back pressure as he used his quickness to force a Finland turnover and then he finished his check almost putting his man over the boards. Offensively Lekkermaki showed real deception as a puck carrier. He constantly changed pace or changed his skating angles and he did it all while his head was on a swivel scanning the surface looking for the best option. He finished the game with 3 grade “A” scoring opportunities. The first came on a quick stick cross body one-timer that led directly to a goal. The second came on a high flying rush through the neutral zone after he demanded the puck in transition. On the rush he changed pace, changed the shooting angle and ripped a snapper through the defender’s legs. The third came off a cycle where Lekkerimaki opened up for a one-timer, but received the pass behind him and he then fired a snap shot off the goalie’s collarbone. Midway through the second period we liked that he received matching roughing penalties after a net front scrum in his end. He continued jawing on his way to the box and seemed to be enjoying the conversation from the penalty box. One thing of note, he did have three shots blocked. None of them led to opportunities for Finland, but we feel as a potential high end National League goal scorer this is something to watch as he continues his development.

U18: Team Sweden vs Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, August 7, 2021: Lekkerimaki is a very quick agile right shot forward who played primarily right wing. In the defensive zone he clogged lanes, had a very active stick and showed nice combination of ice awareness and poise after receiving passes for clean breakouts. As a puck carrier through the neutral zone he used a change of speed to create favorable gaps and often times looked like he had Team USA’s defender’s guessing what he was going to do next. In the offensive zone Lekkerimaki has the ability to vanish into thin air and then explode into the quiet area with his stick prepared looking to score goals. He had 19:36 in total ice time, including 3:40 on the power play. He had 1 goal on six shots and finished with a plus 2 rating. The interesting stat that certainly did not effect his total ice time was 8 give aways versus 1 take away.