Messier was, what, 36 when he came to Vancouver, no? Louie was 31 when he signed and was only ever seen as a placeholder while our core developed.
Virtanen was one of our first “foundational” pieces after management admitted to needing to move on from the Sedin era. Not even drafting Pettersson rivaled the hype surrounding Jake. He was supposed to be the hometown golden boy that was going to jumpstart the rebuild.