POWER FORWARD NEEDS TO POWER UP
Canucks Prospects Countdown: Virtanen kicks off the top 10
Jake Virtanen shouldn’t be on a list like this one.
He’s too good.
His first year as a professional was much better than our collective memory of it.
At 19, he had 13 points in 55 games and was arguably the most physical player on the team. His even-strength shot-attempt differential was a plus-19. No one else crested plus-4 in Willie Desjardins’ second season, which unfolded like his team was a paper bag and opponents were slowly pouring milk into it.
When it ended, Virtanen seemed poised to be a great off-season away from becoming a solid twoway winger with size and speed, and well on his way to a 10- to 15goal season, a combination rare enough to make him a top-five pick, reach or not.
Instead, Virtanen was forced back to the start, literally reshaping himself in Utica, and it raised hard questions about his NHL future.
There were some encouraging developments, none more important than Virtanen’s speed improving as he got in better shape, part of an in-season program coach Travis Green put together, including off-season training-like two-a-days.
But in the end, he had 19 points in 65 games. That, combined with a lot of innuendo from the Canucks and their coaches about the “young players” and their commitment during Virtanen’s NHL stay, has people wondering about what kind of player he can be.
There are at least two scouts who watch him a lot who are concerned his career path could be the same as Jack Skille’s.
Considering where he was picked, that would not be great.
Like Virtanen, scouts were divided on Skille, who was drafted seventh overall in 2005. He was projected as a scoring power forward by some and a bottom-six checking line guy by others. Turns out, those in the latter camp nailed it.
Others see a more encouraging future for Virtanen and believe his upside is like Tom Wilson, Washington’s physical third-line winger.
Wilson, drafted 16th in 2012, has been effective this post-season, but still, you’d hope Virtanen with that great skating could give an NHL team more.
If you watched a lot of Virtanen in Utica this season, especially down the stretch, you’d see a player who was flying, but you may wonder where the big hits have gone, the physicality which fans in Vancouver loved and the team desperately needs.
Most of the nine goals he scored were on the rush. With his strength and size, he should be doing a lot more in the slot and the so-called dirty areas, a point the organization is definitely aware of.
“That’s what I think Travis was working with him on,” Vancouver GM Jim Benning said. “He does have the size and strength to play in the hard areas and that’s how he’s going to score goals in the NHL.
“What’s happened with Jake is that in junior he was a big scorer, so he really didn’t have to play a well-rounded game, because his coaches and the team would always count on him to get the big goal.
“What we tried to do this year, by sending him down, and practising — he learned how to practise hard. He’s transformed his body. He’s in good shape.”
Deflections and rebound goals need to be a huge part of Virtanen’s game along with crashing the net, and it’s just not there regularly right now.
“You see in the playoffs, the guys who can get in on the forecheck and are physical, they get the puck and take it to the net. They stand in
front of the net and get rebounds, tip-ins,” Benning said. “We’re trying to get his game to a power forward-styled game. We are happy where he ended up this year.
“The scoring part will come for him, he can shoot the puck. But it’s getting him to understanding the details and what he’s capable of doing at his size and speed. It takes time. Some guys make the adjustment right away. Some guys take longer. We want to be patient because it’s hard to find power forwards.
“Unless you draft and develop them, they’re hard to find.”
The Canucks’ 23-man opening night roster, which included Virtanen, averaged 194.9 pounds, which was the lightest in the NHL and nine pounds on average lighter than the team that opened the 2013-14 season.
In other words, the Canucks need Virtanen. They need his size and power.
He does have the skill-set to be much higher on rankings like this, he just needs to show it.
He does have the size and strength to play in the hard areas and that’s how he’s going to score goals in the NHL. JIM BENNING, Vancouver Canucks general manager