Vancouver Canucks Jake Virtanen: NHL vs. AHL in 2016-17
By the Numbers
Most people that complain about Virtanen’s rookie performance are those that look at just two things:
- Virtanen’s goal and point totals
- William Nylander‘s and Nikolaj Ehlers‘ point totals
Back in 2014, there were many who would have liked to see Vancouver pick Toronto Maple Leafs prospect William Nylander or Winnipeg Jets prospect Nikolaj Ehlers over Virtanen. Now two years removed from the draft, it is easy to look at those three players and say: “Nylander only needed 22 games for 13 points and Virtanen needed 55 — he can’t f-ing score” or “Ehlers has 38 points — he’s so much better!”
Please, don’t be that guy.
Of all Canucks that played in 40 or more games, Virtanen had by far the fewest ice time. In 55 games, Virtanen played around 50 minutes of five-on-five time less than Luca Sbisa in 41 games. Now, you could say he got sheltered minutes which should only help him. But look at this:
In five-on-five situations, Virtanen had 182 offensive zone starts versus 167 in the defensive zone and 194 in the neutral zone. Daniel Sedin, for example, had 414 offensive zone starts versus 289 in the defensive zone. Now that’s how you make offensive production easy for a player (note: this does in no way intend to bash Daniel Sedin).
Related: Jake Virtanen carries his teammates
Despite playing few minutes and many of them starting in the defensive zone, Virtanen led the roster in Corsi-for percentage. In fact, Virtanen and Dan Hamhuis were the only two players who posted Corsi-for percentages above 50 percent. Virtanen came in at 51.04 percent, followed by Hamhuis (50.12) and Henrik Sedin (49.39).
His relative numbers display the same thing. A relative Corsi-against per 60 of -6.62 and a relative Corsi-for percentage of 3.44 are both team-best numbers. By far.
You can see all of that in his HERO chart as well — first-line level productive possession.