"Off wing" means playing the side that is opposite from the handedness in which you shoot no? If you shoot right and you play left wing then you're playing your "off wing."
I don't know why it is so hard for you to comprehend my position in this discussion. You think the odds are Virtanen won't be better as a left winger because he would be playing his "off wing." But he grew up playing left wing. How hard is it to understand that the odds are that a left winger who grew up playing on the left wing would be better playing the left wing as opposed to the right wing?
Your turn. Explain to me why the odds are that a player who grew up playing the left wing and was drafted as a left winger is a better right winger in the NHL because he shoots right.
I'm sure you agree that you can do things in jr hockey that you won't get away with in the NHL?
Here is a video tutorial of what a normal breakout situation entails for a winger:
When you play your off wing, all this goes out the window.
You are either playing with your back to the opponent, that obviously has its limitations, or taking the pass with your backhand with its own set of negatives. This puts tremendous pressure on our D to make plays when exiting the zone. We lack good puck moving D men.
Maybe we disagree on JVs toolkit as well... but... If you look at the list of players in the thread
@Literally started ( in order posted ):
Josh Bailey
Alexander Mogilny
Zach Hyman
Burrows, Granlund, Loui Eriksson with the Sedins
Patrick Kane
Jakub Vorecek
Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexander Radulov
Marion Hossa
Nikita Kucherov
Matts Zuccarello
Filip Forsberg
Artemi Panarin
James Neal
Mattias Janmark
Alexander Ovechkin
Teuvo Teräväinen
Erik Cole
Ray Whitney
Ilya Kovalchuk
Patrick Sharp
Jonathan Marchessault
Reilly Smith
David Perron
Clayton Keller
Mikkel Bødker
Rickard Rakell
Rick Nash
I bolded players that are roughly in the same ball park as JV in terms of talent & hockey IQ.
Negatives:
- harder to protect the puck all through transition
- harder to receive breakout passes
Positives:
- the one-timer from across the ice
- when able to cut to the middle, you are in prime shooting territory
For elite offensive players the positives are worth the downsides; Or they are talented enough to overcome the negatives in their own zone.