biturbo19
Registered User
- Jul 13, 2010
- 26,278
- 11,390
Yeah, the whole 228lbs thing is both an indication that he may not have been in ideal cardio state at the time...and indication that his legs where you can add a ton of mass and power to skate like Virtanen does, are kind of freakish. Given the fact his upper body has looked relatively underdeveloped and even "weak" comparative to his overall weight even on draft day...and obviously beyond as a shoulder injury and subsequent rehab is apt to make upper-body strength building a bit complicated.
I think like Kreider, Virtanen is likely to be built like the sort of player you might perhaps see...leaping out of a swimming pool with a hugely powerful lower body.
Exactly. Guys with a naturally big athletic frame like that...+/-10lbs is nothing. They'll gain and lose that over a season easily. If not much less time. Especially if their conditioning level isn't totally up to par and they're focused on gaining strength/power playing in Jrs. People get way too wrapped up in "listed weight" for players, which is 99% of the time, completely bogus. When you have direct reports of what a player weighs in at (as in the provided articles with specific quotations on the topic direct from Benning), that's something you can weigh in.
It's the difference in a guy with a "big frame" and a guy without. The idea is, Virtanen has the sort of frame to legitimately play at close to 220lbs one day...as he matures and starts to really refine his fitness regimen into something targeted and "ideal".
It's a lot like a guy in Pacioretty who was drafted at something like "203lbs" and reportedly plays now at something like "214lbs" and comes into camp at something like "218lbs". And that's without mention of where his pre-camp weight falls in the summer.
http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2007/06/getting-to-know-mcdonagh-and-pacioretty.html
http://montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/nhl/montreal-canadiens/dinner-with-max-an-enlightening-look-at-habs-sniper-pacioretty-on-the-ice-and-off
With Virtanen, you've got a guy who weighed in at the combine at some 209lbs...and has been clearly documented as reaching into the 228lb range at the end of a full season and playoff run in the Dub. That's a "heavy player", with a "heavy build". Conditioning and fitness may push him back down to 210lbs, but it's hardly an unbelievable set of numbers, and it's probably not a hugely different situation than Bo Horfat of last summer for the Canucks. A guy who was 220+ in the summer/offseason/summer prospect camp...came into Canucks camp in the fall @ a reported ~215lbs, and ended the season in better bf% state @220lbs (and skating much faster as a result).
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Iain+MacIntyre+Canucks+rookie+Horvat+knows+huge+gains/10878161/story.html
Wouldn't expect it to work out so rapidly and counter to expectations as it did with Horvat, but given what we know about Virtanen actually gaining mass over the course of last season and dropping weight again for fitness...it's a somewhat familiar story...and it wouldn't be remotely surprising if the Canucks ended up with a 440lb duo of players "core players".
