I commented in this thread a few times yesterday, and was quite surprised to see all the comments overnight. The back and forth debate seems pretty one-side too, especially because the people defending Virtanen have no basis to go on other than his good draft year. Yes scoring 45 goals in a draft year is a good feat, however; what has he done since then? He hasn't done anything worthy of his draft position and instead seems to be regressing. His draft year could also be an extended hot-streak or an anomaly as well as he hasn't impressed since then. It may be a confidence thing, or perhaps he simply isn't good enough to translate to the pro level. This is the biggest hurdle for many young prospects, but unfortunately; many of them can't adapt.
It may be a bit premature to call Virtanen an outright bust at this point, but as many posters are stating, it simply does not look to good at this point for him. He definitely is trending downward and at this point can't even crack the roster of a terrible NHL team on the 4th line. I have serious doubts he will ever amount to much of an offensive player in this league, and thus at best he can potentially be a 3rd and 4th liner. But again, he doesn't even seem to be able to grasp that once the opportunity was given. I think a trade has to happen to save face from management, and that is most likely what they will do. Luckily, I also think this will be the best for Virtanen as I can't see him amounting to anything in Vancouver. A change of scenery may help his development...but before I am misquoted, if we stays in Vancouver I just can't see him being an NHL player.
A lot of people seems to misunderstand my whole point. Especially this Devils-guy, it nearly seems like he doesn't want to understand my points/opinions just to be a pain in the ass. I have said multiple times that i never was a fan of the pick. I have criticised the pick many times. Like most Canucks-fans, i wanted Nylander or Ehlers over Virtanen. If they would have went for the more physical alternative, i prefered Ritchie over Virtanen even though Virtanens skating were levels better.
I don't consider myself a "defender" just because i refuse to write off a guy 2 years after being drafted. Not a defender of the player, definitely not a defender of management because they've made some horrible decisions. But in my mind, it's not like Virtanen didn't have any potential AT ALL to be a good NHL-player (top6 player), like the Devils-guy seems to think. You don't have to be hockeys answer to Einstein (having high hockey IQ) to be a top6 player. If Virtanen would've developed the right way he COULD have been a very rare and useful player. But again, maybe he wasn't as likely to hit that ceiling as Nylander and Ehlers were.
Hopefully he will stay with Utica for the rest of the year. If so i will give him the rest of the year until i really start to doubt his chances of even being an NHLer as some already seems to think. The guy played limited minutes last year and even less this year in the NHL, i'd like to see how he does when he's playing top minutes for a larger period of time, because he hasn't done that so far in his professional career. And i do consider that a different kind of environment for him. 1st he's the guy that the team doesn't rely upon much (like with the Canucks), and then he's supposed to be THE guy on the team, like he was supposed to be in junior.
I also don’t know how i'd be a defender for saying that i believe he could make a NHL career as a 3rd liner. A lot of less talented players made it as 3rd liners. Him not being a 3rd liner at 20 doesn't really mean anything. The path for every player making this league is long, and every path is different. A lot of players doesn't crack the league until they're 25. Let's say that Virtanen long-term doubles the points he had last year in the NHL (7 goals, 13 points in 55 games) at the age of 19, while also rounding out his defensive side of the game a little. That along with the fact that he CAN be a physically dominant player. Then that's easily a 3rd liner to me. Especially considering how much the scoring have gone down in the league over the years. And i don't know how saying that he can be a 3rd liner long-term sounds too optimistic, considering he does have the tools to be one.
