Exactly. But here on HF he can do no wrong. Imagine if his name wasn’t Jake Virtanen.
If he wore a nameless jersey and you watched him play with his output 99% of people on here would be clamouring for his head and why is he still in the NHL??
Don’t forget, when he skates fast and shoots at the goalies logo 99% of the time , people say “he’s turning a corner” lol.
It’s ok to admit he’s a bust. We made a mistake. Admit it and move on.
It's the other way around, IMO. Virtanen has quickly gone from overrated to underrated in this past year, thanks to his previous putrid bust-worthy total-liability performances leading up to it (arguably due to being rushed) combined with the fact that his counting stats didn't reflect his effectiveness.
In reality, if you isolate last season and ignore the name on his back, as well the negative reputation that has been built up (deservedly so), Virtanen was a very effective, hard-working role-player who constantly made things difficult for the opposition, pushed the balance of play in the correct direction, and was often one of our better players on the ice (easily our best forechecker at the moment). He honestly played well enough that it would have been a huge help to the team last year if there were a Virtanen on every line.
I think his upside was overblown when he was drafted, my mind hasn't been changed about him having really low hockey IQ that will likely keep him from ever becoming a high end offensive player (I think the claims that his low hockey IQ is a myth is a total joke), but he's made very promising progress, and is turning out about as well as can be expected given his limited upside at the time of being drafted, IMO.
It wasn't the right draft pick to make, but he's still tracking well to fit nicely into that Cooke/Hansen-esque high-end 3rd liner spot at some point, and is among the least of our problems at the moment.
