{"id":108545,"date":"2021-05-01T14:36:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T18:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=108545"},"modified":"2021-05-01T14:36:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T18:36:47","slug":"jake-virtanen-placed-leave-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/05\/01\/jake-virtanen-placed-leave-canucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Virtanen Placed on Leave By Vancouver Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/04\/29\/nhl-rumours-coyotes-canucks-devils\/\" target=\"_self\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> announced this morning that they&#8217;ve placed forward Jake Virtanen on leave. Virtanen was not at practice this morning. Over the past 24 hours,<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlannaKellyNews\/status\/1388544679986143236\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> allegations of sexual assault and rape<\/a> have surfaced against Virtanen.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/faohjM74d3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/faohjM74d3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Canucks\/status\/1388555465412550656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Vancouver Canucks Place Jake Virtanen on Leave<\/h2>\n<p>On the ice, it&#8217;s been a struggle for both Virtanen and the Canucks. Vancouver&#8217;s first-round selection in 2014, the 24-year-old Virtanen has just five goals and no assists in 38 contests this season.<\/p>\n<p>Virtanen&#8217;s never panned out as the sixth-overall talent he was promised to be, but things were finally looking up for his hockey career last season. He notched 18 goals and 36 points in the COVID-shortened season, both career-highs. Virtanen cooled off considerably in the playoff bubble, however. He tallied just two goals and three points in 16 games as the Canucks were eliminated in the second round.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>Due to the severity of the allegations, Virtanen will likely not re-join the team for the remainder of the season. He <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2020\/10\/22\/jake-virtanen-deal-reached-in-vancouver\/\" target=\"_self\">signed a two-year, $5.1 million contract<\/a> prior to the start of the 2020-21 campaign. With his offensive struggles and multiple big extensions looming for Vancouver, there were rumours starting to surface of a potential buyout of his deal this offseason. Pending the outcome of these allegations and the following investigation, it&#8217;s possible that Virtanen may see his contract with the Canucks terminated as well.<\/p>\n<p>All that means is at this point, it&#8217;s extremely likely that Virtanen has played his last game as a Canuck. If either a buyout or contract termination occurs, Virtanen would technically be free to pursue other career options as an unrestricted free agent. However, it&#8217;s also a possibility that Virtanen has played his last game in the NHL. In past similar situations, if a player has opted to continue their hockey career, it&#8217;s happened overseas. Regardless, it&#8217;s close to a foregone conclusion that Virtanen will not return this season.\u00a0 In the meantime, the legal process will have to play out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"dwhDxxnaSwpcPgI2ZIyWfA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1232594887\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'dwhDxxnaSwpcPgI2ZIyWfA',sig:'jC3gN3WdvYYt_USUKyhYzVUrEsFsgN6nb-cu3DsyjNc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1232594887',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vancouver Canucks announced this morning that they&#8217;ve placed forward Jake Virtanen on leave. Virtanen was not at practice this morning. Over the past 24 hours, allegations of sexual assault and rape have surfaced against Virtanen. pic.twitter.com\/faohjM74d3 \u2014 Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) May 1, 2021 Vancouver Canucks Place Jake Virtanen on Leave On the ice, it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3006,"featured_media":108546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4547,34,4548],"tags":[3327],"class_list":["post-108545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canucks","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-jake-virtanen"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}