Player Discussion Jake Virtanen (MOD WARNING POST 755)

[PuckMunchkin]

His stats look like a dedicated fourth line goon from the 90’s.

But I hear he has turned a corner.

 

[RussianRacket]

HOT HOT HOT take

Jacob Virtanen is one of my least favorite Canucks EVER.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

#2 in hits per game is Virtanen on this team. He's not going anywhere, go pick on somebody else.

You know you have a good argument when it boils down to “he makes the boards go boom.”

 

[Fatass]

His stats look like a dedicated fourth line goon from the 90’s.

Goons had better hands than Jake, and way higher hockey IQ’s.
We are stuck with Jake for one more year, unless we get competent management. And with our owner, that’s highly doubtful.

 

[Blob]

Virtanen struggles to do anything of consequence on the ice. It looked like he was improving, but this season he's done nothing.

 

[GJB]

Jake's last regular season assist came March 4th 2020, well over a calendar year ago.

He has played in 39 consecutive regular season games without recording an assist. This is otherworldly bad.

 

[bertuzzi2bure]

Lol people still support this guy...

 

[Foundational Player]

Jake's last regular season assist came March 4th 2020, well over a calendar year ago.

He has played in 39 consecutive regular season games without recording an assist. This is otherworldly bad.

Sounds as though Brandon 'big balls' Sutter is having a significant influence on Shotgun Jake.

NO APPLES FOR ANYONE!!

 

[Fatass]

But I hear he has turned a corner.

Ya, to the closest Crispy Cream.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Probably a player that already peaked. Was hoping he could develop into Steve Bernier or Taylor Pyatt bottom 6 player but this guy legitimately sucks.

It's one thing if he does nothing offensively but the guy is a total liability for any line.

 

[M2Beezy]

No, they haven't. Horvat has looked great, same with Pettersson, Miller, Hoglander, etc. Some players might have taken a small step back because the team in general took a step back, but no one has regressed as badly as Virtanen. He pretty much has no value, or even negative value at this point.

#2 in hits per game is Virtanen on this team. He's not going anywhere, go pick on somebody else.

In other words I lost the argument but I refuse to change opinion lololol

 

[RobertKron]

If being #2 in hits on the team, at the expense of basically every other element of the game is enough to keep a guy in the lineup on this team, that's a pretty enormous indictment of the coaching and management.

 

[Szechwan]

At this time last year, I had come to accept Jakes progress and was content with a 3rd line winger who could pot 15 or 20 without much pp time. I thought "hey, he isn't what we expected, but he's still useful and his play style will be great to have in the playoffs."

Then I saw him in the bubble. Completely disengaged while guys like Petey went to war in the slot. He was somehow even worse than I expected, and has only gone downhill since then. Fire this player out of cannon and into the sun this offseason, I don't give a shit.

 

[F A N]

I don't even know what point you are trying to make. Defending Benning?

Not longer than 2 years but still about 1.5 mil more than he should be making. 18 goals was a mirage, other Gm's likely saw this, Jim didn't.

Jim did criticize him(about his play in the playoff bubble)....then a month later he signed him to the overpaid contract.


Does anyone remember Utica Comet Tanner Kero?

Josh Leivo? Sam Gagner Adam Gaudette Ben Hutton!? Jayce Hawrlyuk, Jimmy Vesey, Travis Hamonic

Oh man really getting down to the itty gritty former Canuck Alumni here...brace yourself..... Zac Dalpe! Brad Richardson, Alex Biega, Nic Dowd Damn Luke Schenn 0.1 p/gp off from qualifying

All of those guys are outproducing Virtanen this year lol. I just love funny tidbits like that.

There are essential no 23-26 year old players in the league producing worse offensively than Virtanen and his cap hit is double of what most of theirs are

Beagle and Roussel are also outproducing Virtanen, somehow. Those three have a combined 6 goals and a combined 8.55 cap hit. Just brutal

How does he have 0 assists in 36 games? It's pretty much impossible for a forward to do that in today's NHL

My point is that there's no indication that Benning was ever sold on Jake which is a position that the majority of us here have taken. Jake's past 3 seasons saw him put up 10, 15, then 18 goals. Jake is a flawed player but c'mmon if someone bet you that Jake would have less than 5 points after 36 games would you take that bet?

But hey, I guess you will avidly defend Benning whenever he is accused of not trading Virtanen when his value is highest?

 

[StreetHawk]

I don't even know what point you are trying to make. Defending Benning?

Not longer than 2 years but still about 1.5 mil more than he should be making. 18 goals was a mirage, other Gm's likely saw this, Jim didn't.

Jim did criticize him(about his play in the playoff bubble)....then a month later he signed him to the overpaid contract.

Jake had aribtration rights. Based solely on points of other guys his age range, those guys got 2-3 year deals at close to $3 mill per season. No way Jake was going to come in less than his prior contract which was $1.25 mill per at $1.05 mill if you are saying his $1.5 mill higher than he should be making.

Given Jake's history, the Canucks were better served doing only a 1 year deal. It would have to still be in the $2.2-$2.3 mill range if they ended up in arbitration.

 

[bossram]

Aaaah I remember the Nick Ritchie/Jake Virtanen vs. Wiliam Nylander/Nik Ehlers wars like it was yesterday...

Where'd those guys go?

 

[Zippgunn]

Kyle Wellwood got 18 goals for us one year and everybody here totally hated him so we dumped him and he got 18 for Winnipeg (at league minimum) and folks here STILL dissed him at every opportunity. Meanwhile Jake "just needs more time" according to some here. Gets primo minutes, plays the PP, the works and he has FOUR goals and ZERO assists so far and yet... he still gets into the lineup night after night despite being useless defensively and taking idiotic penalties. Baffles me...

 

[TheOtherGM]

Where does Jake rank on your list of most disappointing players in franchise history?
I can't think of many I'd put above him.
With his wheels, strength and shot I thought at minimum he should be a straight-line forechecking/backchecking nightmare with the ability to pop 10-15 goals, and could have been a huge asset as a complementary player on a contending team.
It's almost worse that he's flashed that ability at times. You know it's in there, but it can't be consistently unlocked.
The most recent playoffs were the end of my optimism for this player.
Off the top of my head, I can't think of many players I've become more disillusioned by than Jake.

 

[F A N]

Kyle Wellwood got 18 goals for us one year and everybody here totally hated him so we dumped him and he got 18 for Winnipeg (at league minimum) and folks here STILL dissed him at every opportunity. Meanwhile Jake "just needs more time" according to some here. Gets primo minutes, plays the PP, the works and he has FOUR goals and ZERO assists so far and yet... he still gets into the lineup night after night despite being useless defensively and taking idiotic penalties. Baffles me...

What? That's not how I remembered it. When we acquired him he had excellent hands but was Well Fat and soft defensively. Then he got himself into shape and morphed into a very good 3rd line C. My memory of his last season here was that he would win the faceoff in the defensive zone and the puck would consistently be moved up the ice. He was excellent including the playoffs. I think if his stats were tracked he would be an analytics darling. In hindsight, we should have re-signed him to play on our 4th line.

He was perceived as small and slow but really he had excellent hands and whenever he got the puck he was able to move the puck up the ice. I think many of us wanted him back but of course most of us thought Malhotra would be an upgrade.

 

[Tables of Stats]

Count me in the camp that though Jake had finally found his game as a solid 3rd liner who had solid tools and a limited toolbox. I don't know what happened to him in the bubble and going into this season but whatever it is it makes me want Jake off of this team ASAP.

 

[Zippgunn]

What? That's not how I remembered it. When we acquired him he had excellent hands but was Well Fat and soft defensively. Then he got himself into shape and morphed into a very good 3rd line C. My memory of his last season here was that he would win the faceoff in the defensive zone and the puck would consistently be moved up the ice. He was excellent including the playoffs. I think if his stats were tracked he would be an analytics darling. In hindsight, we should have re-signed him to play on our 4th line.

He was perceived as small and slow but really he had excellent hands and whenever he got the puck he was able to move the puck up the ice. I think many of us wanted him back but of course most of us thought Malhotra would be an upgrade.

Well back then I was mostly on CDC and he was reviled there. A photo of him from the off season lounging by a pool (while he was re-habbing a foot injury) that showed just a hint of a belly got constant rotation as evidence that he was "fat" (he never got close to 200 lbs. but whatever). Never mind that he was our best faceoff man, our best shootout guy and a very creative (if soft) player that literally never took penalties. We let him walk and the Jets picked him up for league minimum where he continued in the same vein. Nobody in Van seemed to notice or care...

 

[IslandBeast]

My point is that there's no indication that Benning was ever sold on Jake which is a position that the majority of us here have taken. Jake's past 3 seasons saw him put up 10, 15, then 18 goals. Jake is a flawed player but c'mmon if someone bet you that Jake would have less than 5 points after 36 games would you take that bet?

But hey, I guess you will avidly defend Benning whenever he is accused of not trading Virtanen when his value is highest?

Ew. Please don't put the words "defend" and "Benning" next to each other

Sorry but I still don't know what you're trying to say here. I've never seen such neutral comments

If Benning wasn't sold on him then he should of been moved at some point, not signed to too much money ahead of guys like Toffoli, Stecher etc right after he just said how unimpressed he was with him.. All your argument is doing is pointing out more managerial incompetence.

I've been saying the exact same things for 7 years, I haven't flip flopped on Jake once. He's not an NHL player. He's actually gone on similar streaks like this before so taking that bet wouldn't be very outlandish at all, really. He's a horrible, low IQ player who can grab points using physical gifts if all the stars align and if he can get on a lucky-run. He's a 10 goals 10 assists guy at best who makes bonehead plays more often than good ones, doesn't kill penalties, takes bad penalties, isn't good defensively and kills the cycle in the offensive zone every time.

 

[Blue and Green]

Count me in the camp that though Jake had finally found his game as a solid 3rd liner who had solid tools and a limited toolbox. I don't know what happened to him in the bubble and going into this season but whatever it is it makes me want Jake off of this team ASAP.

Same here. He was making better plays with the puck last season and I was on the relatively supportive side of the debate a year ago. Since then, not good. I'd make him available to Seattle and if they don't take him-- I doubt they would-- then try to trade him with retention or just use the buyout option which is quite efficient in his case due to him being <26 years.

 

[VanJack]

Jake joins the list of awful contract extensions by this GM. Gudbranson, Sbisa, Sutter, Pearson and on and on it goes.

Benning has this uncanny knack of paying players for what he thinks they'll do versus what they actually have done.

If Benning wasn't sold on either Jake or Adam Gaudette, he should have moved them over the summer. But no, he lets the clock run down on any value they might have had in the marketplace. And then inevitably dumps them for the equivalent of somebody else's waiver wire fodder.

The Canucks have few tradeable assets as it is.....but when the GM consistently scuppers the trade value of the few guys he does have, well it's beyond frustrating.

 

[F A N]

Well back then I was mostly on CDC and he was reviled there. A photo of him from the off season lounging by a pool (while he was re-habbing a foot injury) that showed just a hint of a belly got constant rotation as evidence that he was "fat" (he never got close to 200 lbs. but whatever). Never mind that he was our best faceoff man, our best shootout guy and a very creative (if soft) player that literally never took penalties. We let him walk and the Jets picked him up for league minimum where he continued in the same vein. Nobody in Van seemed to notice or care...

I don't think a lot of people cared because we signed Malhotra. He actually went to the Jets after playing in San Jose.