The Vancouver Canucks surprised many when they sent surging rookie Jonathan Lekkerimäki back to the AHL to play for the Abbotsford Canucks for the rest of the 2024-25 season.
The truth, however, is that this was the best move for the young player.
Lekkerimäki, 20, is only playing his first full season in North America, and he has generally done well handling and adapting to all of the required adjustments he has needed to make thus far.
In 24 NHL games with the Canucks, the Swede had scored three goals, three assists, and six points, taking just one minor penalty while averaging just 12:30 of ice time.
A few things are true of Lekkerimäki and the Canucks in this instance.
The most obvious, and arguably the most important, is that Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet was not trusting Lekkerimäki to play meaningful minutes most nights. That also means that Tocchet is not rushing a player who was drafted less than three years ago into becoming an impact player.
One penalty in 24 games means that Lekkerimäki rarely spent a lot of time defending, and when he did, he was not struggling to keep up and having to lunge at opponents.
On the other hand, the Canucks' former 15th overall pick got only 30 shots on goal off in his 24 NHL games, which, of course, includes a chunk of power play time as well.
For a player who was drafted primarily for his shot and scoring capabilities, Lekkerimäki was not getting on the puck enough for whatever reason. Some of this falls on him and his positioning, and some of it falls on his Canucks teammates for not distributing the puck to one of their most lethal players.
The loss of J.T. Miller does not help, and neither do the injuries to centers Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil, the Canucks' two best puck transporters not named Quinn Hughes.
The AHL level is where Lekkerimäki can and will shine, for now.
The 20-year-old has 19 goals, nine assists, and 28 points in 32 games with Abbotsford, making him a near-point-per-game player. An impressive feat, given the youngster is playing on North American ice for the first time and played 30 games as a pro player just once before this season.
While it is surely disappointing that Lekkerimäki won't finish the season with the Canucks, there is no purpose to him playing 10 minutes a night in a season with no stakes remaining.