He played his D+1 season in Calgary, and absolutely sucked.

Normally, a forward playing his D+1 in junior will see his numbers jump significantly. Jake struggled in Calgary that entire season.

Just 1 season after the draft, there was no chance Virtanen would have even been mentioned as a top 10 pick with the way his game fell off.

Did the Canucks rush him in his D+2 season? Sure you could argue that...but it’s not like he was given a prominent role on the team, and there was a tonne of pressure for him to be a star that year.

But, I think the thing you’re forgetting is that in that D+1 season the Calgary coaching staff actually started to reduce his role (and ice time) on that team. There was something they didn’t like about him (we can safely assume now there was a lot they didn’t like, and we know what those things were), so the Canucks were kind of stuck: send him back to a shitty situation in Calgary that was apparently hurting your prospect or you keep him in Vancouver (because of his late birthday he was ineligible for Utica).

But...even without all that, do you not think that Jake’s poor work ethic and commitment are related to where he is now at? Did the Canucks ‘rushing’ him ruin him so bad that he’s justified in showing up out of shape to,pretty much every camp since he was drafted?