How Jake Virtanen can become a more valuable player by being a more disciplined player

Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin

It was a senseless hit and a late one that earned Vancouver Canucks forward Jake Virtanen the first suspension of his NHL career.

Virtanen, 19, was standing in front of the Sharks net in a forechecking position when San Jose Sharks defender Roman Polak made sure to knock the young Canucks forward’s stick out of his hand. As play moved the other way, Virtanen lined up Polak. Several beats after the veteran Sharks defender completed an outlet pass, Virtanen delivered a late, reckless hit from Polak’s blindside.

Polak was down for an extended period of time, though he returned to the game. Virtanen meanwhile earned himself a major penalty, an ejection, a telephonic hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety and a two-game suspension.

Addressing the incident in the locker room after the game, Virtanen denied that his prior engagement with Polak influenced the decision to throw the late neutral zone hit. He did, however, admit that the hit was late.

“I was back checking and I saw Polak move the puck and I just wanted to finish my check,” Virtanen told reporters. “It ended up being a little bit late, but it was shoulder-to-shoulder I thought, it wasn’t to the head or anything, but a little bit late.”

The NHL Department of Player Safety was having nothing to do with Virtanen’s “little bit late” formulation, describing the lateness of the check as “extreme” and the hit itself as “predatory.”

In a fast, contact sport like hockey, accidents are going to happen. Virtanen throws a lot of hits – he’s Vancouver’s leader in hits per game, and ranks in the top-40 leaguewide by this metric – so the law of averages indicate that eventually this was bound to happen.

Which is precisely what Virtanen himself suggested on Tuesday night.

“A lot of young guys go through that,” Virtanen told reporters after the game. “It’s going to happen at one point in your career where something goes wrong…”

Where this play becomes perhaps a bit more troubling is when you consider the overall trend. Virtanen has too frequently displayed a penchant for undisciplined play over the past 12 months.

Last year with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen, Virtanen was hit with a three-game suspension during the Eastern Conference final for a neutral zone headshot. The similarity of that sequence to the one that earned Virtanen his first NHL suspension isn’t quite at the level of uncanny, but the hits themselves – forceful, violent neutral zone checks against a player ineligible to be hit – certainly resemble each other.

There was also Virtanen’s six penalty minute performance in Team Canada’s quarterfinal loss to Finland at the 2016 World Junior Championships. The young Canucks power forward took two penalties – a trip and a slash – on the same shift mid-way through the third frame in a tied contest. Team Canada never returned to even-strength before surrendering the game-winning goal.

In the wake of that World Junior disappointment, Virtanen addressed the media at Rogers Arena for 15 minutes. It was a tough scrum as Virtanen – who we should remember is still a teenager – was asked at length to rehash and take responsibility for a bad shift in a very high-profile game.

Towards the end of the scrum, after the TV cameras and the radio mics had moved on, I brought up the WHL suspension to him and asked Virtanen if it was challenging, as a physical player, to play an on-the-edge game in a way that helped his teams win. He said no.

“Being a power forward-type player you’ve got to go out there and hit guys,” Virtanen explained at the time. “You have a role to fill. I’m not going to change my role and try to be Henrik or Daniel Sedin. Y’know that just won’t turn out well, so you’ve got to go out there and play your game.”

Virtanen’s game is a physical one. At a very young age, the still-green Canucks power forward has come into the league with two NHL-ready attributes – an ability to throw the big hit, and an ability to outskate most opponents. He profiles as the sort of player that might develop into an apex predator-type body checker as he matures.

And part of that maturation process will hopefully include a better awareness of how to avoid taking that big penalty, which hurts the team or warrants supplemental discipline.

This isn’t to bury a 19-year-old player who erred in making a judgment call on Tuesday night. Though he takes penalties at the third highest rate among Canucks forwards, Virtanen hasn’t been particularly penalty prone this season. He’s actually drawn one more penalty than he’s taken.

With Virtanen’s skill set though, he has the potential to be a master of the dark art of producing a favourable penalty differential. He has the speed and the size to gain position on defensemen and he delivers the sort of bone-rattling hits that could regularly result in retaliatory penalties.

It’s an often-ignored area where a player can provide their team with tremendous value. Consider that if a team cashes in on 20 percent of power-play opportunities, then every additional penalty one of their player draws is worth the equivalent of .2 goals.

Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle, for example, is a similarly large and gifted winger. Coyle has drawn 20 more penalties than he’s taken at even strength this season. Theoretically that’s worth four additional goals. For a team like the Wild who are still fighting off the Colorado Avalanche in a close playoff race, that could make the difference between an invitation to the dance or a 9am tee time.

As Virtanen continues to progress and learn the ropes at the NHL level, this is an area where he could have a significant and positive impact. Reining it in, finding that fine line and playing on it consistently isn’t a simple task. It takes some experience and a good deal of maturity. And discipline.