It’s August, but we have news!

In fact, we expect to get a lot more news in the next week or so, as three Vancouver Canucks prospects will represent their countries at the rescheduled 2022 World Junior Championship this week in Edmonton.

Joining Jacob Truscott (USA), Joni Jurmo (Finland), 2022 is 15th overall pick Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who will suit up for Team Sweden at this year’s tournament.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Lekkerimäki has qualified for the team, as the Canucks’ first-round pick was highly touted by scouts everywhere leading up to the draft.

Jonathan Myrenberg, Lucas Forsell, and the man we like to call RePetey (Elias Pettersson), were all recently invited to Sweden’s selection camp for the 2023 Junior WC, which starts in December.

Lekkerimäki will still qualify for that tournament as well, and one would assume he will have an even bigger role than the one he does in this year’s tournament, which starts this week at Rogers Place.

Here’s what Chris Faber had to say about Lekkerimäki after seeing him in person for a week at the Canucks’ development camp in July.

The Canucks top prospect had some highlights at this camp and really showcased his strengths at this camp. His shot release was electric and stood out even more than other top shooters like Aidan McDonough or Danila Klimovich. The puck explodes off Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s blade and his stick handling skills are also very impressive.

While we saw a lot we liked, there’s still a long way to go before we get to see him play in the NHL. Lekkerimäki needs to put on some size before he can compete in the NHL and as a player who was drafted just over a week ago, that should come as no surprise.

He will get a lot of minutes in the Allsvenskan next season and we look forward to seeing him have success in Sweden for a year or more likely two before he can come over to North America.

We’ll be keeping you up to date with wall-to-wall coverage of this year’s tournament, so be sure to stay tuned to the CanucksArmy all week long!