In Hockey - you need team toughness... I agree with you that we don't need goons, but team toughness with pushback... Cal = Tkachuk, Monahan, Giordano, Hamilton, Wideman, Brouwer, Versteeg, Ferland, Engelland, Smid, Bartkowski. Edm = Lucic, Maroon, Kassian, Larsson, Cagguila, Nurse, Hendricks, Fraser. Ana = Getzlaf, Kesler, Perry, Fowler, Bieksa, Boll, Manson, Eaves. Chicago = Toews, Kane, Kieth, Hossa, Seabrook, Hjarlmarsson, Tootoo, Oduya... All these players play with an edge and toughness when the games count. Which makes the rest of the team play bigger and with more confidence.
I said it before, with the Sedins and Edler leading our team, we will never have the swagger that I believe we can with Horvat, Tryamkin, Gudbranson, Sbisa, Granlund, Boeser, Labate... with a guy like Horvat leading this young team, they will start to play with the same will and "toughness" that it takes to win.
As far as Virtanen is concerned - let's not write him off yet! He is the youngest kid on the Utica Comets at the moment - he is developing by maturing down there - he will have a chance to develop his game and come to camp next year to try and make the team. If he doesn't make the team, then maybe it is a good thing that they wait until the Sedins contract is over and he learns how to conduct himself on and off the ice like Horvat does and Boeser does... These are the ones I would like to see our new crop of prospect strive to play like. I am tired of the leadership turning the other cheek game in and game out, during the regular season maybe, but during the playoffs - that was the difference between winning in 2011 and losing as far as I am concerned.
I trust Benning will continue to try to draft a mix of everything this team needs - but it can't happen overnight - when he drafts a solid kid in Virtanen, he should have drafted talent, when he traded for Dahlen and Goldobin, he traded for kids that are too small... give the guy a chance over the next 2-3 years to draft and trade for a mix of players that will be tough to play against - with speed, size and skill in the mix!