‘I AM NHL READY’
Power forward Jake Virtanen has gained the trust of Canucks coach Travis Green
Jake Virtanen needs to work on his stickhandling and shooting. The fact they top an off-season to-do list for the improving Canucks’ winger is a big deal.
We’re no longer consumed by his fitness. We’re not worried about his attitude. And we no longer wonder about his ability to grasp the game at the NHL level.
“Three years have gone fast and I am NHL ready,” said the 21-yearold Virtanen. “I feel like the last 15 games I really proved to myself that I can play and be dominant. I’m looking forward to camp and dominating right from the start. I want to be a guy where it doesn’t take a bunch of games for me to get into it. I want to be into it right away.”
Virtanen’s 10 goals and 10 assists in 75 games this season won’t move the meter of those who expected the sixth pick in the 2014 draft to already be that budding power forward. And when you measure the output against a rookie season, in which he had seven goals and six assists in 55 games, it’s easy to wonder where’s the progress and production?
However, a deeper dive reveals what has really been at play.
Virtanen had to first gain the trust of coach Travis Green. Virtanen had to go from admiring a heavy hit, a bold rush or breakaway to being stronger on the backcheck and making smarter decisions with the puck. He was always a work in progress, but he has progressed.
Virtanen played 7:34 in the season-opener and 15:11 in the finale and would average 11:56. He led the club in take-aways with 51, but his 32 giveaways were only exceeded up front by Daniel Sedin with 37.
As expected, he led forwards in hits (156) and was fifth in shots (130), but his 7.7 shooting percentage was third lowest behind Henrik Sedin (4.5) and Sam Gagner (6.1). He played on every line and eventually got power-play time. He was even paired with Brandon Sutter in a shutdown role against top lines.
“The last 10 to 15 games he dominated at times,” said Green. “The onus now goes back to him. What can he do over the summer to get better? Does he come in and take a step forward, stay the same or take a step back? That’s the message we have to send — we have to get better — and he’s a big part of that.
“He needs to become a better player than he is today, but we like the progression. He was better defensively and at times, I just felt his confidence got higher as the year went on — not just to play physical — to play with the puck and take it to the net.
“If he didn’t have an option, he wasn’t just throwing pucks away in the offensive zone. He learned how to protect a puck, get his head up and make a play.”
It’s quite the career ascension. From an initial sense of entitlement — he cracked the roster in 2015-16 along with fellow rookies Jared McCann and Ben Hutton — to conditioning and consummate pro concerns, the redemption road was rocky. It reached a point last season where Virtanen was at the crossroads in Utica, N.Y.
Green had him on the workout bike morning, noon and night. He drove him so hard that the winger wondered if it was all worth it. He was barely scoring in the AHL — nine goals in 65 games — and it was grating.
Understanding that scoring is a byproduct of doing other things well to make a difference seemed as complicated as calculus.
“I had a couple of thoughts last year,” recalled the 215-pound Virtanen.
“I talked to my dad pretty much every day. He told me Hank and Danny (Sedin) went through a lot of stuff when they first came in. They battled through it.
“He told me it was going to be better for me in the long run, and it was. I learned a lot. I learned how to treat my body. I only fluctuated two pounds all year and I’ll come in even a couple pounds lighter to camp and be even faster.”
The new Virtanen is a good Virtanen. He easily blows by defenders and even outlegged Connor McDavid in the season finale Saturday.
“That was pretty funny,” he recalled. “He was kind of at the end of his shift and did a good job of reaching under my stick to just get me. But any time you can beat him, that’s nice. I feel like I’ve shown the staff that I belong here and want to be here.”
That wasn’t always the case. But Virtanen was in a different place as a wide-eyed rookie.
“When you’re 19, you just want to go out there and do your thing that you did in junior,” he admitted. “You have to mature a lot quicker than other kids. This is a hard league. It’s hard to make it and hard to stay in it.”