Sandro17

Its weird but I never thought their chemistry would be this good.

IDK guys, him being a first liner might be a stretch. He's more likely to be a high tier second liner IMO or fringe first. At the worst, a very good 3rd line scorer.

Good size. I don't really expect much potential from a 7th round pick though.

Yes

Double Post

I was surprised by this pick. The guy was completely off my radar for the fifth overall pick because of his size. I'm sure JB had seen something in this kid that moved him up past Glass and Vilardi. I think it may have to do with this kids' work ethic, tenacity, heart and soul and the fact that this kid is an elite offensive talent. Something that people don't seem to look at enough is the fact that not only is this guy a high end offensive talent "Nylander esque", but unlike Nylander, he plays all 3 zones very well. His coach said something along the lines of "He finds solutions on the ice that only he could think of" My speculation: JB saw a kid with a high ceiling and a tenacious work ethic and amazing hockey IQ. In other words, this guy has all the intangibles of a successful NHL player that can't be taught, except size (You can add size but it only goes so far). Having said that, he may not be as much of a risky pick as we may think. A project for sure, but not necessarily a risk. On a side note: His style is apparently reminiscent of Henrik Zetterburg.

Well because the thread is so quiet heres my honest opinion on Jake. His intensity and tenacity is terrific. Holy hell the way this kid hits is insane. His speed and power are grerat. His shot is amazing and he has tremendous upside. Had his passing skills and hockey IQ been better he should have been taken first overall in the draft. He has the potential to be the future face of the franchise The problem: He's being rushed. When a player needs to develop hockey senses and a few finer skills in the game, you send that player down to your farm team. He'd probably rip the AHL up once he finds his groove. Unfortunately, I just don't think he's being handled properly. Him being in the NHL right now seems to force him into playing his one dimensional game repeatedly in order to be successful short term.This asks him not to develop the finer areas of the game including hockey IQ. Considering this, I don't see Jake reaching his maximum potential. Therefore I project JV to become of a fringe first liner and not the franchise forward that we hope for. I hope that I'm wrong though. There are two ways this situation is playing out. Either Benning really sees something in this kid and he believes that he'd progress more in the NHL than in the AHL which is contrary to what we believe or JB wants to keep his job and is under pressure from Aquillini to get wins which is what everyone believes. Although all this is just speculation. If anything, I hope JB is doing the right thing, he's an experienced scout and looks at the game and player progression differently than us hockey fans do.

Recent play doesn't dictate your ability to teach. The best coaches in the NHL have never seen top line minutes, but their ability to see and teach the game is very relevant. Just because a vet has been playing poorly doesn't mean he can't accelerate somebody's learning curve. It doesn't work that way.

Well assuming I'm correct then you should probably ask that question to Jim Benning. I'm not the one making the calculations for growth here, Benning is. Although it probably has a lot to do with him being able to get tips and pointers from vets, have our management team keep an eye on him and for him to understand what is expected of him in the NHL.

I think the problem is that Benning has to choose whether to develop this guy in the juniors or the NHL when in reality JVs best learning curve per game is most likely in the AHL which hes too young for. JB probably does want to have Jake grow as much as possible but calculated that he'll do his best growth in the NHL where its easier to keep an eye on him. I'm sure if Virtanen were allowed, he'd be placed there. Its too bad that it isn't an option right now.

The stats don't indicate that he is NHL ready yet and I'm not sure if he'll really improve at the NHL level if this keeps up. Even if Virtanen is in my opinion expected to eventually be better than Horvat and Mccann in the long run, the problem is that his power forward style takes a while to properly develop to the point where it is NHL ready. Theres no point in rushing this kid, I say that he can stay at the Junior level for now to practice his skills. He's 19 he's got a lot of time to improve on what is expected of him. I think that in the long run, things would be better if he stayed at a lower league first. Having said that, I'm unsure if we're just keeping him up here so he can produce and get us into the play-offs. If that were the case, I'd be disappointed because this could just stunt his growth as a player. I'd rather miss a play-off year than stunt the growth of what could potentially be the future face of this franchise.

...Yeah...he's a pretty chill guy

Negotiating abilities during his time as a player agent. Kesler at 5m and the Sedins at 6.1M who were art ross winners made him look godlike don't you agree?

Political stunt. The fans need a new rise because the team is doing poorly. This should cause an increase in ticket sales, while the re build is going on.

Logged in just to plus this :D

Ok wait, I don't see how any of this is really Torts' fault. In fact, I can't see this being Gillis' fault either. At the beginning of the season Mike said that we were going to go thru a re - tool and that we'd end up being stronger afterwards. We weren't supposed to start losing this badly but still, this is what happens during a re-tool phase. The Ducks went thru it, The Canadiens and the Blues went thru it as well. But IMO the reason why were losing this badly is because were going thru a few transition phases right now. The first transition is obviously the re-tooling phase as mentioned. The second reason is that the type of players we have and the type of style Torts has don't mesh completely. Torts wants a rough game and our stars require a more skilled oriented finesse game. There must be a period where these players that don't fit into Torts' style are going to leave the team, or we bring in young guns that are willing to play a hard-nosed game. Look at whose been carring us to our success this season. Kesler, Santorelli, maybe even Higgins. All of these guys are pretty hard nosed. The Sedin line looks bad because they want to play the game cute. They are being taken away from their game because they are being asked to hit more and block more shots. So now were at the transition point where the guys who are going to carry us are the guys who play well under torts' style and these players have to be acquired thru the draft or by trade. So we either change the players to people who fit the coaches style, we change our coach to fit or we hope and pray that the players can adapt under a new style (Which so far isn't happening). IMO we should just let the process go thru its natural course, lose some games and draft high on draft day and end up with some high skilled hard nosed players in our system.

Nick Ritchie /drool. The guy is already 230 pounds at 18 years of age and he hasn't stopped growing!

IMO this guy has the potential to be Luongo/Schneider v2. It didn't work out in Florida for some reason but boy does this guy have potential.

The differnece between this and the Roy thing is that Roy was clearly agitated by Bruce and the Ducks yelling at him and so it was a spur of the moment thing. This incident with Torts on the other hand was premeditated, no one was screaming at him, he was separated from Calgarys' coach with a couple of brick walls and the aggravating incident (Calgarys 4th line going out on the ice) happened about 30 minutes before Torts went to the Calgary locker room. The incident was over and Torts literally went out of his way to the flames locker room to pick a fight.

So in other words, our second line can act as our 3rd line as it shuts down opponents very well and our third line just needs added scoring due to the second line taking their role. You actually make a good point. +1

Nope, Kassian is bigger and has more defensive ability.

Nice to see that this guy is doing all that, despite him being known for his defensive play.

THAT^

That is all.

256 pages of awesomeness. One day, about 10 years down the road, when Burrows is retired, this thread will still be here and will probably be mentioned at Burr's retirement ceremony.