Player Discussion Jake Virtanen

[lawrence]

..... people new to this stuff? the Roxy's always been a place for Canuck player hang outs and hook ups. It's normal and nothing worth trashing about. Although I will say he is a little young for that particular club sine it's more late 20's type of place, he's only 22, I thought he go to a place more his age.

Virtanen's last 15 games or so were eye-popping...basically took the puck to the net whenever he wanted to and made some pretty solid NHL d-men look silly by taking the puck wide. But was it a mirage? Will he turn back into a pumpkin once the regular season starts?

I thought he was pretty good for us down the stretch. a far cry from the, "he has no iq" type of b.s. He does hang on to the puck more often, a lot less of the "streaking down the wing and firing a no hope shot on goal" type of play, he will skate it down and try to make plays or wait for reinforcements. It's quite obvious he will never be an offensive force.

 

[DL44]

Will be a beast.

 

[Addison Rae]

Expecting a 15/15 season from Virtanen

 

[DownGoesMcDavid]

Can someone fill me in on who these twitter trolls are.

Tsm1040 poll is about boeser and kale reaponding well om Twitter.

What happened ??

 

[Tables of Stats]

Virtanen needs to build off the end of last season and be that 15/15, takes the body, plays with anybody type of player to keep any level of interest from me. I'm 50/50 on him doing it but I'd much rather he succeed than be the next Kassian.

 

[Zippgunn]

Virtanen's last 15 games or so were eye-popping...basically took the puck to the net whenever he wanted to and made some pretty solid NHL d-men look silly by taking the puck wide. But was it a mirage? Will he turn back into a pumpkin once the regular season starts?

So 5 points in his last 20 games is "eye popping" eh? What did you think of Gagner's last 20 games? Or Jussi's?

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

 

[PG Canuck]

I don't have very high expectations. I think I'd be blown away at a 15/15 season considering I think he gets passed over by other players throughout the course of the season.

 

[ChefBoiRD]

I vision 20/20 (goals/assists) for Jack Virtani

 

[Pip]

With each passing day of the offseason the story of Jake’s last 20 games seem to be getting out of hand. He showed promise and that gives me some hope for this season but...

1. I think people are greatly exaggerating just how good he was in the final stretch of the season.

2. He’s not the first guy to play well during “garbage time”

Overall I’m hoping for a 15-15 season. He’ll never live up to his draft position but I believe he can be a useful player.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

I think it's quite possible Jake does 'live up' to his supposedly lofty #6 draft pedigree, which in fact isn't really so lofty at all.


History Of The No. 6 Overall Pick In The NHL Draft

 

[DL44]

Ha ha.. I love how butt hurt Price is.
Such a lame low hanging attempt of a joke.
Virtanen sees... hey another lame attempt to poke at me by someone in media... wait, a TSN media guy? No rights to Canucks hockey? Never have to talk to him anyway? BLOCK.

 

[Kryten]

I think it's quite possible Jake does 'live up' to his supposedly lofty #6 draft pedigree, which in fact isn't really so lofty at all.


History Of The No. 6 Overall Pick In The NHL Draft

Weird typo at the end with the 69-06 players. Listed Brule as Vancouver Giants when all the other players has the team who drafted them

 

[CanaFan]

I think it's quite possible Jake does 'live up' to his supposedly lofty #6 draft pedigree, which in fact isn't really so lofty at all.


History Of The No. 6 Overall Pick In The NHL Draft

Tkachuk, Monahan, Lindholm, Zibanejad, OEL in the past 10 years plus TBD on Glass and Zadina.

I’d say it’s decently lofty. Jake might be the worst of the bunch outside of Connolly and even that’s tbd.

 

[CanaFan]

Ha ha.. I love how butt hurt Price is.
Such a lame low hanging attempt of a joke.
Virtanen sees... hey another lame attempt to poke at me by someone in media... wait, a TSN media guy? No rights to Canucks hockey? Never have to talk to him anyway? BLOCK.

Wasn’t a poke at Jake, was actually a poke at Green for not playing him more.

 

[Melvin]

Ha ha.. I love how butt hurt Price is.
Such a lame low hanging attempt of a joke.
Virtanen sees... hey another lame attempt to poke at me by someone in media... wait, a TSN media guy? No rights to Canucks hockey? Never have to talk to him anyway? BLOCK.

Learn to read.

 

[DL44]

Awe... it was "a mistake"...

Just probably trying to quietly cut some media off over the summer... then the Roxy story comes out and Jake's response is a sport radio discussion and then Blake realizes he hasn't seen any of it on his feed.. Virtanen busted by Blake.. Blake hurt.. tweets about it.. Virtanen.. just a mistake Blake!

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Tkachuk, Monahan, Lindholm, Zibanejad, OEL in the past 10 years plus TBD on Glass and Zadina.

I’d say it’s decently lofty. Jake might be the worst of the bunch outside of Connolly and even that’s tbd.

I think you forget Filatov and Gagner.

But yes, Lindholm, Monahan and E L are great young players. The six hole seems a bit feast or famine lately.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Awe... it was a mistake...

Dammit

 

[CanaFan]

I think you forget Filatov and Gagner.

But yes, Lindholm, Monahan and E L are great young players. The six hole seems a bit feast or famine lately.

“Past 10 years ...”

Even if you go back to Crosby draft, you get:

Filatov: talented but not committed to playing in NA.
Gagner: Disappointing but ultimately an ok middle 6 NHLer.
Brassard: Took awhile but ended up a very good top 6 guy
Brule: Poster boy bust.


Interestingly the #7 pick has an even better track record than #6 since 2005:

Keller
Provorov
Dumba
Schiefele
Skinner
Kadri
Voracek
Okposo

Unless Jake can become a regular 20+ goal guy he’s gonna sit comfortably in the bottom 1/3 of the post-2005 list.

 

[DL44]

I think it's quite possible Jake does 'live up' to his supposedly lofty #6 draft pedigree, which in fact isn't really so lofty at all.


History Of The No. 6 Overall Pick In The NHL Draft

Between Peter Forsberg and Virtanen.. there were maybe 3 franchise players taken at 6th.. 1991 to 2013... 22-23 players.

Quite a few nice careers from some of the others.. a few all star games. A few core pieces...

Yeah.. that "live up to a 6th pick" thing is definitely overstated. .. like expecting a franchise player should be the expectation.

 

[timbermen]

Virtanen will score over 20 goals this year, check this post in April.

 

[CanaFan]

Between Peter Forsberg and Virtanen.. there were maybe 3 franchise players taken at 6th.. 1991 to 2013... 22-23 players.

Quite a few nice careers from some of the others.. a few all star games. A few core pieces...

Yeah.. that "live up to a 6th pick" thing is definitely overstated. .. like expecting a franchise player should be the expectation.

No one is expecting a franchise player but when a pair of 60-70 pt forwards were drafted immediately after and your guy is struggling to score 20 points, it’s a tad more relevant than what players went at that spot in completely unrelated drafts.

 

[Kryten]

Virtanen will score over 20 goals this year, check this post in April.

Considering Jake hasnt scored 20 goals in his NHL career yet, might as well say he will score 20 before 2019. Check this post in January

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Between Peter Forsberg and Virtanen.. there were maybe 3 franchise players taken at 6th.. 1991 to 2013... 22-23 players.

Quite a few nice careers from some of the others.. a few all star games. A few core pieces...

Yeah.. that "live up to a 6th pick" thing is definitely overstated. .. like expecting a franchise player should be the expectation.

At the time I was very much in favor of drafting Nik Ehlers in the spot but Jake did seem to be figuring things out toward the end of last season. Quite honestly if Jake can become that big fast middle six winger that provides some secondary offense it's not such a bad thing.

The situation seems more promising than it did this time last year if you flash back.