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I'm excited to see him play with Horvat and Hansen. Kenins has been off the last few games, hopefully this lights a fire under him too.

The problem is... his value ISNT high. I was hoping he got the rest of the season in the A as well as the playoffs. One of his biggest issues with Calgary was that he was bouncing around with the big club and the minors that shook his confidence.

i don't know if its the Hitmen defensive zone system but every time Virtanen is on the ice for a goal it looks like he's playing someone else's position. I don't watch enough Hitmen games to comment but I always see him on the right side, left side and even playing in the middle when they are breaking out/back checking. It's not a bad thing if he's covering for a center but boy he is not engaged enough to be solid defensively with center responsibility. This happened earlier this season with McCann, where the greyhounds would beat teams 8-2 and 10-1 and McCann would get a measly 1 assist. Virtanen has definitely been on a slump since early March and hopefully he turns it around and the Hitmen go deep or they get knocked out early so he can go learn parts of the pro game. He didn't participate in training camp. Yes he was around the team, but being around the team and being on the ice with them is completely different.

I was just going to post about this. I remember hearing he needed the same surgery that Eddie needed, and that it takes up to 6 months to recover. I agree and don't see why he'd be holding back now, he should really be getting it done asap.

He's been a little snake bitten lately; he could of had 3 or 4 goals purely off breakaways this past week that would have his point total to 26-27. I would have never thought he'd be making this much of an impact this quickly in his 1st season. The fact that he played more than Henrik last game just shows how far he's come.

If he is injured then I'm not too thrilled with his durability. He punishes people with hits but if these are taking a beating on him in Junior, Imagine when he starts trying the same thing against men. I haven't watched him play since the WJC, so I'm gonna wait till the summer when prospects camp starts to see where he's at.

He can learn to be a more effective player on a consistent basis. He won't be able to learn that in the NHL where he needs to be consistent to even play under WD system.

I think that word is praised way too much and holds too much value. Virtanen is "never" going to be a 2-way player, and nor should he really. His defensive awareness is never going to be that of a Burrows, but I agree he needs to learn some thing. He needs to be more engaged without the puck and he also needs to make better decisions with the puck. The knock on his hockey IQ was on his playmaking, but also what I mentioned above: Awareness way from puck (both offensively and defensively) and his decisions when he has it (from what I hear, he's a turnover machine). I'm not particularly fond of our farm team preaching defence only because it very easy to teach the offence out of young offensive minds. I'd rather it be defensively conscious so they can work on their strengths. People always said that: "A good defence makes for good offence" but it could also be argued for the other way around. You dominate offensively, you never have to play defence. The Sedins would be an example of that

That's what people use, excuses, when they dont want to admit our prospects aren't perfect. "It's never the prospect's fault, it was the development". We have too many of those excuses.

You can't blame a coach for wanting to win games, and the fact that the Hitmen were dominant down the stretch shows that at least he knows how to do that. On the other hand, we don't care what the Hitmen do as a franchise in the end, we want what's best for Virtanen. I've only been able to watch him in the Super Series and at the World Juniors. He improved mightily from the SSS to the WJC and after that I thought he was going to light the Dub on fire. That didn't happen and while I'm very excited for what he brings, I was a little disappointed, especially with his goal scoring. In the end, I still think he is our best prospect, the things he does are amazing, it just kind of confuses me how he just doesn't dominate.

For sure. Our favourite comparisons for Horvat have been Toews and Bergeron from the start, the leagues best two-way centermen. It would be amazing if he got to that status, but again, I'm holding expectation quite loose and just enjoying the bo show.

I was definitely one of the pessimist or one who aired on the side of caution with this trade, but I've definitely come around on this guy. Not just because of his production, but that fact that his entire game has seem to taken off. In every comets highlight package, he always seems to be in the middle of all the Comets chances. Travis Green has him out alot in the last minute of play protecting leads which says alot. The guy is doing everything for the Comets right now.

I think Gaunce needs one more season before a call-up. I'm really excited with Gaunce because of his versatility but I want him to really develop well down in the minors; get his footspeed and tenacity up and full. I think two full seasons (including this one) in the AHL before making the jump on opening day 2016-17. If he uptakes his production to around 0.5PPG+ for an entire season next year, I think he can make an impact in our bottom six the following year.

Age makes a huge difference. Mike Hoffman is leading the league in Rookie Goal scoring with 25 goals, but he's 25 years old. A rookie scoring 25 goals is impressive but then you have to look at the guy's age because him scoring 25 goals in his rookie campaign won't make him a superstar. If it were an 18 year old scoring 25 goals, say Nathan Mackinnon, then you can have a better indication of his NHL stardom potential because of his age, not so much his NHL experience. Your Seguin and Horvat comparison is just not good... I'm sure you can find a better comparison between two high draft picks... That's just naive to say there is a correlation there.

I don't think anyone ever doubted Horvat was going to find his way, and become a good player for us. The problem I had, and many others, is that we only got 1 pick back for Schneider. It has nothing to do about the player but the fact that all Gillis could muster was one pick. In hindsight, if horvat becomes a bergeron or toews player everyone will love the trade, but in a pure asset management perspective.. we didn't maximize Schneider's value.

He reminds me of a more pass first Markus Naslund.

Believe that is the plan. Philly did it with Gostisbehere and was done many times before that. Don't see a downside for the organization to do so.

This is very interesting. I partially different outlook on Jake's up and down year. This actually explains a lot. It just comes down to the mentality: If the coach doesn't trust him ~> he doesn't play ~> points are down ~> tries to do everything ~> if he fails ~> takes out his frustration ~> bad penalties ~> benching. It doesn't help that he's in an environment where his strengths aren't being utilized but no one wants a high maintenance player. It is almost like the whole Chicken before the Egg scenario where Jake needs to buy in before getting an opportunity, much like Kassian needed to do here with the big club. I see some stifling similarities in Kassian and Virtanen's demeanour towards the game, and as someone mentioned above, hopefully he learns a lot quicker than Zack.

Those characteristics are similar but they are very different players. Kane is big but he isn't compact big like Virtanen is. I remember seeing him at Cactus Club in the summer and he's actually not as big as I thought he was. Virtanen, like Horvat, is a bull and is built like a truck. When it comes to their playing styles, I don't see that many similarities when it comes to that either. They both have good shots, yes, but the way they use their skills is alot different. Kane uses his frame to lean on you, he's also isn't the greatest stick handler. Virtanen likes to hold on to the puck, has decent playmaking ability that I think Kane does not have. Kane has a better nose for the net in my opinion.

I'm actually really excited he signed. With that interview the other day, it kind of looked like he wanted to stay for that final year. We all know he's got offensive potential, but I hope he can learn good D with Green sooner rather than later so he is given more of an offensive role in Utica in the coming years.

It was the leafs lol. I can't believe how bad Jake Gardiner looked last night. Bo also made a nice move on Rielly.

Right because he's going to be able to score these amazing goals in the pros. I think we can all agree on the fact that just because you score highlight reel goals in junior that it might not translate to the NHL. Drouin the Q on fire, went through the entire team twice before scoring, but he can't do that in the NHL. What we want from jake is consistency. We don't expect him to be scoring end to end goals every game and adding 2 assists. We want consistent production, all while improving all parts of his game that will allow him to play in the NHL. Being held off the scoresheet 40% of your games in not good. Inconsistency is one of the major career killers. Look at WD philosophy: "I want to put a guy out there and know what to expect and know exactly what he's going to bring". Guys like Kassian and Jensen have struggled with consistency and you've seen how bumpy their journey has been. In the end, we're all cheering for Virtanen and everyone's negativity goes away when points are scored. That's the bottom line. If points aren't being produced people start questioning and others start defending that's just the nature of this community. We need to step back and look at it as a whole and make sense of all the information. Because just saying he had surgery on his shoulder does not give the man a write off. You also can't say that you'll be satisfied if he turns out to be a 3rd liner. We all know that he could fit that mold, but only if that's where he ends up! You don't cheer for him to become that.

You're talking like it would be a success for Virtanen if he did not pan out as an offensive force, but just a big, fast body who can skate and hit.. You can find those types of guys anywhere. One's who can do all that and score is something else. We would rather have him scoring than not, because ultimately goals win games. Obviously if he doesn't pan out, that's that. But you don't off the bat have the mindset for settling; you want to best possible outcome and with that offence production is alot of that. I'm not defending all the statwatchers, nor am I making excuses, I try to made unbiased and impartial comments about our prospects.

Hasn't seem to slow down Sam Bennett? If you're going to throw out the argument that Bennett got a summer of training, he is playing in his 1st games at the most critical point of the season and excelling. Just food for thought. We've made up so many excuses for our prospects in the past, just take it how it is. 1PPG to 1.09 PPG is not a very big increase, especially for a 6th overall pick who's GPG has dropped off significantly. I'm not complaining that he's getting more assist, it's just, he should be generating more offence overall not just in the assist column. He's a an amongst boys in that league and should be scoring in almost every situation: shot, driving the net, outmuscling opponents, etc. I haven't watched him play, however, and from every scouting report of people who have watched him have said great things. This is encouraging definitely as he's shown signs of offensive creativity setting up teammates and being more defensively sound. All that said, expectations for a 6th overall pick should be that he can do all those things aforementioned a produced as well at an elite offensive clip.

I had to increase my expectation every week. I really thought he was going back to Junior or atleast the WJC at the start of the season. Just imagine if he didn't get injured in the pre-season, he maybe?? could have challenged for the Calder? Maybe if there was a Rookie Selke trophy