WWYDW: Wishing Philip Larsen a Speedy Recovery

When did Canucks Army go Union, and why does Jackson think he gets to take weeks off? The nerve of some people. The show must go on, though, and I’m here to take the torch back for a week.

If you watched last night’s Canucks game in New Jersey, you probably caught Philip Larsen getting caught with a questionable hit behind his net, delivered by Taylor Hall. I don’t see anything terribly wrong with the hit itself, but these things are open to interpretation. I’m open to an argument to the contrary.

So, was the hit suspendable in your opinion? If so, for how long? And if Larsen’s out long-term, which is certainly a possibility, who steps up in his stead? Here’s hoping to a speedy recovery.

How would you handle Jake’s development? Should he be in the NHL? AHL? The pressbox? Or maybe you think the Canucks should cut their losses and see what they can get for him now, before his value declines any further.

Leave him in the AHL for the rest of the year. He could benefit from some consistency in his development and having him with the big club isn’t helpful since we aren’t challenging for any success this season anyway. Hopefully he can start putting in some goals and be a lock to make the top-9 come training camp next season.

Some writer for the Province floated the idea of Jake for Ryan Strome whose new hobby is polishing the press box bench with his butt.

It might be a wake up for both and maybe works for everyone.

Otherwise, Virtanen can stay in Utica until he is getting a point a game. That’s all on him. If he’s injured then he should request time to heal train and get back in the game.

If he’s just lost, there’s the benchmark — make an impact.

Really would hate to see him go the way of Jensen, but Jakes future is in his hands and no one but he can make himself skate harder, throw some hits, learn to hold onto the puck, battle and score.

It is sad to think we could have had any one of William Nylander, Nick Ehlers, Nicholas Ritcie, Dylan Larkin or Robby Fabbri at the 2014 6th draft pick.I don’t think he is going to develop into what the Canucks hoped for, so package him with Tanev and get back a combo of great prospects and /or high draft picks.

Definitely leave him in the AHL. It’s hard to say exactly where his development has gone off-track — they seem to have done a pretty good job with Horvat, Gaunce, Hutton and Tryamkin, but been nowhere near as good with either Virtanen or McCann. Is that an indictment of the Canucks’ development program or of the individual players? It’s not clear. The Nylander and Ehlers picks are easy to point to right now and suggest we made a mistake (and I think that’s more true for Nylander) but there are a number of players who have similarly not really impressed yet at the top of that draft class (Dal Colle, Fleury, Fiala). I think the Ducks’ strategy with Ritchie made more sense for a PF though they had the luxury of being able to park him in the AHL which we didn’t. Trading Virtanen right now would be a mistake, both because PF take longer to develop and because his value is probably at the lowest it might be. Unless we really are in “win-now” mode (and I hope to god no one in management actually has that delusion) the only reasonable trade would be for another high-end prospect and there’s no way we are getting that without throwing in picks or other players. He should stay in the AHL this year and hopefully start to sort out his head.

The ball is in Jake’s court. It’s up to him to play his way back to the NHL.

Benning got lucky with Stretcher and Tryamkin and unlucky with Jake.

2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

Jake should stay in the AHL for a while. To me, his comments about being unsure of the plan for him shows that he really needs some consistency right now.

Often, people forget what it is like to be 20, and not have experience to draw on in bad situations.

Let him grow and develop as a person and a player away from all this for the next year or two, and hopefully he puts it together becomeing the player we think he can be.