Jake Virtanen | #18 | RW

[NuckleheadFan]

How is Jake developing? Does he have better structure in his game?

[Vinny in Vancouver]

4 hours ago, Tiger-Hearted said:

Tkachuk: 37 games, 7 goals, 17 assists, 24 points, 72 PIM, +9 with Calgary.

Virtanen: 22 games, 4 goals, 3 assists, 7 points, 18 PIM, -4 with Utica. Yahoo Sports also reported him playing on the third line as of last Saturday.

...

This is not good.  Not good at all.

You want to compare Tkachuk playing with pretty good teammates with Virtanen playing with no-names? Have you seen our Utica lineup? You put Tkachuk there without the likes of Virtanen, and I'd be shocked if Matthew would have 24 points in 37 games. If you're going to compare, try to do it apples to apples - come on, man!

[manroth19]

26 minutes ago, vinny_in_vancouver said:

You want to compare Tkachuk playing with pretty good teammates with Virtanen playing with no-names? Have you seen our Utica lineup? You put Tkachuk there without the likes of Virtanen, and I'd be shocked if Matthew would have 24 points in 37 games. If you're going to compare, try to do it apples to apples - come on, man!

This times 10

[manroth19]

Man this virtanen hate is getting ridiculous give the kid a god damn chance to develop and figure it out. What's with all the hate that we picked jake at 6.....he was ranked 6 to 10 on almost every single draft rankings. If each and every one of us didn't piss and moan about passing on local talent like lucic and Gallagher jb wouldn't even had taken him. This town would have killed the gm if we passed out on a local kid in our range. Ask yourself why do you honestly think jb was trying so hard to move up to number 1 that year to take reinhart? Because he prolly didn't want to draft jake and saw another local kid. 

[kenhodgejr]

Jake is going to be warrior for our team. Let him mature a bit in Utica and get stronger. Make no mistake about it he plans to do what ever it takes to make it to the NHL. He will improve defensively under Green just like Shinkuruk and Gaunce did. I still think Boesser will be our #1 RW, William Lockwood our #2 RW and Jake will be our #3 RW.

 

He told me he sees himself as a Michael Ferland type of player. Im ok with that. Jake skates really fast, he can create offensive opportunities and he will hurt the other team with his forechecking. 

He will be a beast of a third liner allowing our coach a lot of options 

 

 

[guntrix]

37 minutes ago, manroth19 said:

Man this virtanen hate is getting ridiculous give the kid a god damn chance to develop and figure it out. What's with all the hate that we picked jake at 6.....he was ranked 6 to 10 on almost every single draft rankings. If each and every one of us didn't piss and moan about passing on local talent like lucic and Gallagher jb wouldn't even had taken him. This town would have killed the gm if we passed out on a local kid in our range. Ask yourself why do you honestly think jb was trying so hard to move up to number 1 that year to take reinhart? Because he prolly didn't want to draft jake and saw another local kid. 

The problem is not the fact that he was mediocre with the main team but that he looks just as mediocre with the Comets. There would be much less hate should he have shown noticeable improvement.

 

The problem, as someone above mentioned, was the fact that he was never that good in junior. He had one good goalscoring season (stressing on the goalscoring and not on the playmaking) that yielded many alarms based on the clear tunnel vision of his plays as well as the perennial coasting. Blame the shoulder injury or whatever flavour of the month excuse (despite professionals in the field deeming him healthy enough to play), his production doesn't lie. What's worse is that he should've played much much better - the guy looked like a man amongst kids physically. 

 

GP - G - A - TP

                                                                                                               

2011-12	Calgary Hitmen	WHL	9	3	1	4
2012-13	Calgary Hitmen	WHL	62	16	18	34
2013-14	Calgary Hitmen	WHL	71	45	26	71
2014-15	Calgary Hitmen	WHL	50	21	31	52

 

Am I rooting for Virtanen? Yes, it would benefit the club greatly to see him become a serviceable player. Do I acknowledge that he probably shouldn't have been taken at 6OA? Yes, that too. 

Edited January 8, 2017 by guntrix

[Salmonberries]

42 minutes ago, manroth19 said:

Man this virtanen hate is getting ridiculous give the kid a god damn chance to develop and figure it out. What's with all the hate that we picked jake at 6.....he was ranked 6 to 10 on almost every single draft rankings. If each and every one of us didn't piss and moan about passing on local talent like lucic and Gallagher jb wouldn't even had taken him. This town would have killed the gm if we passed out on a local kid in our range. Ask yourself why do you honestly think jb was trying so hard to move up to number 1 that year to take reinhart? Because he prolly didn't want to draft jake and saw another local kid. 

I do agree that the hate is getting way ridiculous, and that everyone needs to relax and let the kid learern the pro game down there. i have to disagree that fans and media crying about 'the BC boy' had any affect their decision making process though. I mean, Lord help us if it did because the fans and media are always whining about something or other, often contradicting themselves week to week. I'm sure the Canucks just liked Virtanen in the six hole, as you indicvated, most teams had him in that range.

[beni]

31 minutes ago, kenhodgejr said:

Jake is going to be warrior for our team. Let him mature a bit in Utica and get stronger. Make no mistake about it he plans to do what ever it takes to make it to the NHL. He will improve defensively under Green just like Shinkuruk and Gaunce did. I still think Boesser will be our #1 RW, William Lockwood our #2 RW and Jake will be our #3 RW.

 

He told me he sees himself as a Michael Ferland type of player. Im ok with that. Jake skates really fast, he can create offensive opportunities and he will hurt the other team with his forechecking. 

He will be a beast of a third liner allowing our coach a lot of options 

 

 

 

Ferland is a 5th round plug. 

 

I hope he has higher sights than that. 

[GettinGuddyWithIt]

1 hour ago, kenhodgejr said:

Jake is going to be warrior for our team. Let him mature a bit in Utica and get stronger. Make no mistake about it he plans to do what ever it takes to make it to the NHL. He will improve defensively under Green just like Shinkuruk and Gaunce did. I still think Boesser will be our #1 RW, William Lockwood our #2 RW and Jake will be our #3 RW.

 

He told me he sees himself as a Michael Ferland type of player. Im ok with that. Jake skates really fast, he can create offensive opportunities and he will hurt the other team with his forechecking. 

He will be a beast of a third liner allowing our coach a lot of options 

 

 

When and where did he tell you this? Don't lie and be honest

[N4ZZY]

44 minutes ago, GettinGuddyWithIt said:

When and where did he tell you this? Don't lie and be honest

yeah. i don't remember jake ever saying he wants to be like Ferlund. it's not very high sights if he's wanting to be like him. should probably aim higher. 

[wai_lai416]

i don't hate Virtanen.. i just hate JB for taking a giant swing and a miss and striking out with all the top 2 line players taken after virtanen.. and also pastrnak right after McCann.. and he's suppose to be a genius when it comes to drafting? by missing out on a top 2 line player in that draft.. and this current draft being as weak as it is... even if we end up with a top 3 pick.. there's pretty much no one that's guarantee a lock to be a top 2 line player outside of maybe patrick.. with the sedins continuing their steep decline.. our young guys will feel the pressure even more to produce from medias and fans a like.. 

[funkyfresh]

10 hours ago, J.R. said:

 

Ferraro compared him to Hansen FWIW. 

 

And yes, he does largely play similarly. He just needs to learn how to do it at this level and get his conditioning at an NHL level so that he can be constantly tenacious rather than coasting.

They are totally different players. I followed Virtanen pretty extensively in junior and I can tell you, him and Hansen are nothing alike. Virtanen likes to wait and pounce whereas Hansen constantly attacks the puck. The coasting isn't a conditioning problem; he has always been a coaster.

 

Hansen is an excellent defensive player, as well, who is relied upon to play hard minutes. Virtanen is a player who was benched multiple times, in junior, when the game was on the line. What you want is for Virtanen to completely change the way he approaches the game. Virtanen can still become a decent player but to expect him to somehow magically become a tenacious forechecker with an excellent defensive game is just unrealistic. 

[funkyfresh]

4 hours ago, manroth19 said:

Man this virtanen hate is getting ridiculous give the kid a god damn chance to develop and figure it out. What's with all the hate that we picked jake at 6.....he was ranked 6 to 10 on almost every single draft rankings. If each and every one of us didn't piss and moan about passing on local talent like lucic and Gallagher jb wouldn't even had taken him. This town would have killed the gm if we passed out on a local kid in our range. Ask yourself why do you honestly think jb was trying so hard to move up to number 1 that year to take reinhart? Because he prolly didn't want to draft jake and saw another local kid. 

 

Bob Mckenzie had him 7th, after Ritchie.
THW had him after nylander and ehlers (8).
THN had him at 12.
Hockeyprospect had him 18.
ISS had him at 7, after nylander.
Dobber prospects had him at 10.
Pronman had him 11.
Future Considerations had him at 10.
Mckeen's had him 7, after ehlers.
CS had him at 6 for North American skaters.

Craig Button didn't even have him in the first round. This should have been a red flag considering he watches a lot of Hitmen hockey. But instead, people were laughing at Button and calling him crazy.

 

Yeah, he was in the 6-10 range but almost no one had him as the 6th best prospect and there were quite a few rankings that had him out of the top 10. Almost every single ranking had Nylander ahead of Virtanen (other than Bob Mckenzie). Thomas Gradin was also pushing hard for Nylander (http://www.nucksmisconduct.com/2014/6/29/5855388/so-how-did-we-do-at-the-2014-draft). 

 

I think the reason people are upset is that the majority would have taken ehlers or nylander instead, and it is disheartening that the fans could have drafted better than this management group. 

[Hugor Hill]

3 hours ago, funkyfresh said:

 

Bob Mckenzie had him 7th, after Ritchie.
THW had him after nylander and ehlers (8).
THN had him at 12.
Hockeyprospect had him 18.
ISS had him at 7, after nylander.
Dobber prospects had him at 10.
Pronman had him 11.
Future Considerations had him at 10.
Mckeen's had him 7, after ehlers.
CS had him at 6 for North American skaters.

Craig Button didn't even have him in the first round. This should have been a red flag considering he watches a lot of Hitmen hockey. But instead, people were laughing at Button and calling him crazy.

 

Yeah, he was in the 6-10 range but almost no one had him as the 6th best prospect and there were quite a few rankings that had him out of the top 10. Almost every single ranking had Nylander ahead of Virtanen (other than Bob Mckenzie). Thomas Gradin was also pushing hard for Nylander (http://www.nucksmisconduct.com/2014/6/29/5855388/so-how-did-we-do-at-the-2014-draft). 

 

I think the reason people are upset is that the majority would have taken ehlers or nylander instead, and it is disheartening that the fans could have drafted better than this management group. 

 

The market wanted and needed a power forward who skates and hits hard and can shoot the puck, and Virtanen is right handed to boot.

It would've been hard to resist all that and draft Nylander, another smallish Swede.

Remember Jake last year drilling Mike Knuble into the boards and beating the crap out of Filip Forsberg for playing enforcer? That's why we drafted him. We need him to do THAT, and score reasonable amount of goals.

 

 

[Nuckin Kingsly]

13 minutes ago, Hugor Hill said:

 

The market wanted and needed a power forward who skates and hits hard and can shoot the puck, and Virtanen is right handed to boot.

It would've been hard to resist all that and draft Nylander, another smallish Swede.

Remember Jake last year drilling Mike Knuble into the boards and beating the crap out of Filip Forsberg for playing enforcer? That's why we drafted him. We need him to do THAT, and score reasonable amount of goals.

 

 

Def wasn't Knuble your thinking of, as he retired after the 12/13 season

Edited January 8, 2017 by Virtanen The Great

[Hugor Hill]

3 minutes ago, Virtanen The Great said:

Def wasn't Knuble your thinking of, as he retires after the 12/13 season

Ribeiro!

Thanks! LOL!

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by Hugor Hill

[73 Percent]

13 minutes ago, Hugor Hill said:

 

The market wanted and needed a power forward who skates and hits hard and can shoot the puck, and Virtanen is right handed to boot.

It would've been hard to resist all that and draft Nylander, another smallish Swede.

Remember Jake last year drilling Mike Knuble into the boards and beating the crap out of Filip Forsberg for playing enforcer? That's why we drafted him. We need him to do THAT, and score reasonable amount of goals.

 

 

Alot of people like to act like they knew all along that jake would turn out like he has. Such BS. We drafted jake because he is the style of player we need. We still need to this day. It's not our fault he isn't trending upward.he is one of the only high profile players that Benning has drafted that isn't showing signs of promise.

 

So is it our fault of his.

[Odd.]

23 minutes ago, Hugor Hill said:

Ribeiro!

Thanks! LOL!

 

 

 

Hey, it's the hotdog dad and the hotdog kid again at 0:03

 

Forever legends.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Odd.

[Darius]

5 minutes ago, Odd. said:

Hey, it's the hotdog dad and the hotdog kid again at 0:03

 

Forever legends.

Good eye!  thats got to be him....lol...

[Warhippy]

4 hours ago, funkyfresh said:

 

Bob Mckenzie had him 7th, after Ritchie.
THW had him after nylander and ehlers (8).
THN had him at 12.
Hockeyprospect had him 18.
ISS had him at 7, after nylander.
Dobber prospects had him at 10.
Pronman had him 11.
Future Considerations had him at 10.
Mckeen's had him 7, after ehlers.
CS had him at 6 for North American skaters.

Craig Button didn't even have him in the first round. This should have been a red flag considering he watches a lot of Hitmen hockey. But instead, people were laughing at Button and calling him crazy.

 

Yeah, he was in the 6-10 range but almost no one had him as the 6th best prospect and there were quite a few rankings that had him out of the top 10. Almost every single ranking had Nylander ahead of Virtanen (other than Bob Mckenzie). Thomas Gradin was also pushing hard for Nylander (http://www.nucksmisconduct.com/2014/6/29/5855388/so-how-did-we-do-at-the-2014-draft). 

 

I think the reason people are upset is that the majority would have taken ehlers or nylander instead, and it is disheartening that the fans could have drafted better than this management group. 

In hindsight the fans drafted Jagr, Sakic, Neidermeyer, Brodeur, Ehlers, Tkachuk, Kopitar, BureKarlsson, Keith, Weber and somehow managed to get Gretzky too.

 

But then there's a reason that these are fans and not GMs/Scouts or people with anything to do with a hockey team because outside of a forum I see a lot of these people drinking their soup through a straw