[Shift-by-Shift Video] Jake Virtanen: How The Canucks Are Destroying His Development

[Seedling]

I think he has the skillset for a top nine guy but he really isn't in a position to succeed right now. Still, I question his hockey IQ a bit. Having said that, it seems he's not growing the way he would regardless of situation. Maybe that's on the team but it's also on him.

 

[Steve Zissou]

I feel really sad for Jake after watching that video.

No, you're just getting hypnotized by the ultra depressing song playing the background...

 

[Honour Over Glory]

He's going to take someone's number for two days too? What kind of message does that send?

I've always liked Jake, I have a soft spot for power forwards. It's tough to see guys held in the NHL to keep them out of junior and basically lose an entire development year because of it. Now the two game trip to the AHL is pretty ridiculous.

That seems like a dick move for a kid that is only supposed to be there for a 2 game stint.

 

[Love]

If JV were drafted by the Leafs he would be a 20 goal power forward who is oozing with confidence right now.

I was 100% on team Nylander at the 2014 draft but I really believe this is as much about the Canucks screwing up this kids development as it is about this kid not being all that great in the first place. He has attitude issue and comes across as incredibly entitled in his interviews? Well maybe you shouldn't do **** like let him take a teammates number while he's on a 2 game stint in the AHL. Maybe you shouldn't gift him a spot when he shows up to camp weighing 230lbs. Maybe you should develop him with skilled players so he gains offensive confidence and develops into a scorer, rather than playing him with the likes of Derek Dorsett so that he can learn to be a career bottom 6 grinder.

Like others have said, he has no confidence on the ice right now. Yet, he still has the audacity to question Willies decision to bench him (says it to the media, no less).

There is still hope for JV as he is still so young, but like the rest of this franchise, the hope of his career hinges on him getting as far away from this management regime as possible. Whether that is via him being traded or management being fired, thats the only way I see his career being turned around... and it needs to happen soon or it'll be too late.

 

[crazychimp]

If JV were drafted by the Leafs he would be a 20 goal power forward who is oozing with confidence right now.

I was 100% on team Nylander at the 2014 draft but I really believe this is as much about the Canucks screwing up this kids development as it is about this kid not being all that great in the first place. He has attitude issue and comes across as incredibly entitled in his interviews? Well maybe you shouldn't do **** like let him take a teammates number while he's on a 2 game stint in the AHL. Maybe you shouldn't gift him a spot when he shows up to camp weighing 230lbs. Maybe you should develop him with skilled players so he gains offensive confidence and develops into a scorer, rather than playing him with the likes of Derek Dorsett so that he can learn to be a career bottom 6 grinder.

Like others have said, he has no confidence on the ice right now. Yet, he still has the audacity to question Willies decision to bench him (says it to the media, no less).

There is still hope for JV as he is still so young, but like the rest of this franchise, the hope of his career hinges on him getting as far away from this management regime as possible. Whether that is via him being traded or management being fired, thats the only way I see his career being turned around... and it needs to happen soon or it'll be too late.

Agree with everything in this post.

Not sure why it's only a two game stint, should spend the entire season there and come back next year.

 

[TOGuy14]

If JV were drafted by the Leafs he would be a 20 goal power forward who is oozing with confidence right now.

I was 100% on team Nylander at the 2014 draft but I really believe this is as much about the Canucks screwing up this kids development as it is about this kid not being all that great in the first place. He has attitude issue and comes across as incredibly entitled in his interviews? Well maybe you shouldn't do **** like let him take a teammates number while he's on a 2 game stint in the AHL. Maybe you shouldn't gift him a spot when he shows up to camp weighing 230lbs. Maybe you should develop him with skilled players so he gains offensive confidence and develops into a scorer, rather than playing him with the likes of Derek Dorsett so that he can learn to be a career bottom 6 grinder.

Like others have said, he has no confidence on the ice right now. Yet, he still has the audacity to question Willies decision to bench him (says it to the media, no less).

There is still hope for JV as he is still so young, but like the rest of this franchise, the hope of his career hinges on him getting as far away from this management regime as possible. Whether that is via him being traded or management being fired, thats the only way I see his career being turned around... and it needs to happen soon or it'll be too late.

Could be Jared Cowen syndrome where the player thought he knew better than upper management

 

[Rebels57]

Benning is the WOAT lol

 

[tigervixxxen]

Maybe they really are going to leave him down there, just trying to make it sound like they aren't to avoid the blowback that they are worried about (I realize there isn't any)

 

[Intoewsables]

Could be Jared Cowen syndrome where the player thought he knew better than upper management

The bums hanging out around Rogers Arena know better than upper management.

 

[Fig]

And just like that, a few hours after this thread was posted, the Canucks do something that they should have done long ago.

Does this pic make Virtanen look like he's wearing makeup?

 

[randomhockeyfan]

If JV were drafted by the Leafs he would be a 20 goal power forward who is oozing with confidence right now.

I was 100% on team Nylander at the 2014 draft but I really believe this is as much about the Canucks screwing up this kids development as it is about this kid not being all that great in the first place. He has attitude issue and comes across as incredibly entitled in his interviews? Well maybe you shouldn't do **** like let him take a teammates number while he's on a 2 game stint in the AHL. Maybe you shouldn't gift him a spot when he shows up to camp weighing 230lbs. Maybe you should develop him with skilled players so he gains offensive confidence and develops into a scorer, rather than playing him with the likes of Derek Dorsett so that he can learn to be a career bottom 6 grinder.

Like others have said, he has no confidence on the ice right now. Yet, he still has the audacity to question Willies decision to bench him (says it to the media, no less).

There is still hope for JV as he is still so young, but like the rest of this franchise, the hope of his career hinges on him getting as far away from this management regime as possible. Whether that is via him being traded or management being fired, thats the only way I see his career being turned around... and it needs to happen soon or it'll be too late.

Surely seems to have some attitude problems, wow. But he gained weight during the summer?

 

[JA]

There seems to be a major disagreement between the coach and GM about Virtanen:

Willie Desjardins' comments:



Linden:


Elliotte Friedman:

A reminder of what Jim Benning said yesterday:




Jake Virtanen:




Hopefully it's more than just two games. Nothing will be accomplished in two games. Willie has even said that he won't play him until he improves.

 

[tigervixxxen]

It just sounds so odd, the AHL isn't summer camp. It matters if you make a mistake there too. It's a league for development but the team is trying to win too. Surely he'll play a lot more there but there's veterans and a system to fit into as well.

 

[Virtanen2Horvat]

Even Willie understands, what is the point of sending him down two games then bringing him back.


Desjardins on Virtanen: "When he returns, I don’t know exactly what that will mean. He has to go down and prove he’s an elite player.”

 

[Werewolf]

Drouin says hi. Kucherov says hi. Namestnikov, Vasilevskyi, etc. Just about every young Bolts prospect got healthy scratched, played on fourth line, was on the shuttle back and forth to Syracuse...and got better.

 

[JA]

 

[JA]

After a week-long roller coaster ride, it seems that Jake is finally going to be settled in Utica to continue his development.

http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/virtanen-on-his-way-back-to-utica

Virtanen on his way back to Utica
CP The Canadian Press
Published:
November 16, 2016
Updated:
November 16, 2016 12:45 PM PST

The Vancouver Canucks have re-assigned Jake Virtanen to the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets, the club announced Wednesday.

The second-year forward was also sent down last week at the tail end of Vancouver’s recent six-game road trip. He was recalled on Sunday after a short stint in the minors that saw him fail to register a point in two games.

Virtanen’s status with the Canucks has been a hot topic this season for a club that sits 6-10-1 and has already endured a nine-game losing streak.

The sixth overall pick at the 2014 NHL draft has been in and out of the lineup, registering one assist in 10 games while averaging just over 10 minutes of ice time.

The 20-year-old from Abbotsford appeared in 55 games for Vancouver as a rookie in 2015-16, collecting seven goals and six assists while ranking second on the team with 128 hits.

Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins has been looking for more consistency from the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Virtanen, who didn’t play in Sunday’s 5-4 overtime victory over Dallas or a 7-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Desjardins raised some eyebrows when asked before the New York game why Virtanen had been recalled from Utica if he wasn’t going to play in Vancouver.

“We were on the road, and so I don’t think he had any of his stuff,” Desjardins said Tuesday morning. “He needed to come back to get his stuff for us to kind of make a decision on where we’re going to go at with him. When you’re on the road you don’t have anything.

“If you’re going to go down (to the AHL) for a while, you need to go back and get (your stuff).”

Here is a brilliant quotation that some posters have uncovered from the Canucks' website:

http://nextchapter.canucks.com/#5thPage

To develop our next core, we are accelerating the development of our young players by surrounding them with the best NHL leadership, character and talent. There are no shortcuts. No one says this will be easy. What it will be, is what you've come to expect from Canucks hockey at its best: Exciting. Energetic. Emotional. You'll see the future of the team emerging in front of you, every night.

JIM BENNING,
General Manager

Hopefully they've learned their lesson. It's impossible to be certain, though.