Jake Virtanen has been All Around the World this year. He spent the season with the Canucks after making the team out of training camp, and he also visited Finland to take part in the World Junior Championships. His season could be best described as a roller coaster, but you’d be hard pressed to say he didn’t get more confident as the year went on.

Regardless, all that matters is his rookie campaign is under his belt, and he showed glimpses he could be the player the Canucks expected when they drafted him sixth overall. So Wait for a Minute, Hold Tight, I’ll Show You how Virtanen’s rookie campaign fared. PS: Sorry.

I apologize for the Justin Bieber filled paragraph to start this, but the Bieber story was just one cog in the wheel of fun that was Virtanen’s season. 

image via tumblr

Virtanen would later turn his social media accounts to private due to the media scrutiny of all his posts.

He cracked the team out of training camp, and many wondered if he would last any further than the nine-game limit, but Virtanen did and he impressed early on in the season. He provided a physical edge that the Canucks were lacking in years past, and with Hutton, Horvat, Baertschi and McCann also on the roster, there wasn’t as much pressure on the young gun as there might have been in years past. He also got labelled “Goat-Medallist” at the Olympics, in what could have been the most unfair and uncalled-for media clipping to pass through this market in a while.  We cleared it up though.

And then Ray Ferraro compared him to Jannik Hansen, which people freaked out over, even though Hansen has been a stable player in the NHL for many years, and turned in the best year of his career this season, so it could be worse than that.

After the WJHC, many assumed he would be returned to the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL, since he had been injured prior to the tournament, and struggled during it as well. However, Jim Benning made the choice to keep Virtanen for the season, and it’s hard to argue against that decision. Virtanen played quite well in the 2nd half of the year, even on a team that was falling greatly in the standings. His two-way play was really strong, something that is definitely a glimmer of hope for the future. He continued to be a strong force on the ice, and he found his legs and confidence as the year went on. The hope is this will carry over into this sophomore season.

Virtanen showed as a 4th line player, but as the stats show he seemed to know what to do with the puck, as he proved to be a top 6 player in everything other than playmaking.

Virtanen missed a chunk of time in December prior to the WJHC due to a hip injury, but as you can see his hit numbers didn’t get the memo. He was 2nd on the time behind Matt Bartowski in that department, and he played 25 more games, so Virtanen was on pace to smash the team lead. 

Perhaps the underappreciated part of Virtanen’s year was the fact he boasted a +20 Corsi despite being on the garbage fire that was this Canucks team for the second half of the season. If he can keep this up for years to come, he’ll surely be a darling of the Canucks fanbase – if not Canucks Army, too. 

Virtanen also took part in this.

All things considered, I’d count Virtanen’s rookie campaign as a success for the franchise. He was able to come into his own as the season progressed, he got international experience (despite the performance) and he got the chance to deal with the media scrutiny at its peak, which might train him for what this market could be like for him. Regardless, I think this market is collectively awaiting the second season of Making a Murderer: Jake Virtanen edition.