Canucks focus on future, retain rookies McCann and Virtanen

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It's been more than three decades since two teenagers were fixtures on the roster of the Vancouver Canucks.

On Sunday, the Canucks broke with tradition and made their nascent youth movement more permanent, announcing that 19-year-old rookies Jared McCann and Jake Virtanen would stick with the NHL team instead of being sent back to their Canadian Hockey League junior teams.

The last time two teenagers put in significant time for the Canucks was 1984-85 – Cam Neely and J.J. Daigneault.

The decision to stick with McCann and Virtanen, after management met to assess the situation on Saturday, is the clearest manifestation yet of the Canucks' juggling act.

Vancouver is one of the oldest teams in hockey and aims to stay competitive as it stokes the next generation of talent.

Not an easy trick, but it's working so far.

The bosses of the current Canucks know exactly what it's like to play in the NHL at 18.

Team president Trevor Linden was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1988 draft by the then-terrible Canucks, and he scored 30 goals his rookie year.

General manager Jim Benning, who finished his playing career in Vancouver, was the No. 6 pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1981.

He delivered 31 points in his rookie campaign for the woeful Leafs.

The most difficult part of Benning's first season was the losses: "The hardest part was the constant losing," he said in an interview on Monday. "And in a market like Toronto, it was tough."

The often-stated mission for Linden and Benning has been to bring up young players in a winning environment.

It's never said, but the goal obviously alludes to avoiding the woes of the Edmonton Oilers, a division rival whose top-tier young players have suffered through dispiriting seasons of losses.

It worked for Vancouver last season with 19-year-old Bo Horvat, the first Canucks teenager in a decade, since Ryan Kesler. Horvat got better all year long.

McCann and Virtanen – as well as 22-year-old rookie defenceman Ben Hutton – have already become key parts of the team, even though their conservative coach, Willie Desjardins, was hesitant to deploy them in the early going.

The Canucks are following, roughly speaking, what the Boston Bruins did when Benning was assistant GM there, and when Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton all played as teenagers.

Before Monday night's game against Philadelphia, McCann led the team in goals, with five. Virtanen leads the team in hits, with 29. Hutton is nearly tied with the Canucks' best defensive defenceman, Chris Tanev, in puck-possession numbers.

McCann and Virtanen will become the ninth and 10th players chosen in the 2014 draft to crack the 10-games-played threshold in the NHL. Virtanen was snagged by Vancouver with the No. 6 pick overall – the reward for the team's awful 2013-14 season that led to the hiring of Linden and Benning. McCann was chosen at No. 24, a draft pick that arrived as part of the Kesler trade to Anaheim.

On Monday, McCann was buoyant. He brings defensive smarts and an offensive spark the team needs. "It just keeps going up," he said of his confidence.

"The young guys," Desjardins said, "bring energy." And they also bring fun, the coach added.

During the second game of the season, and Vancouver's home opener, McCann's offensive talent was immediately obvious as he ripped home a shot from the slot for his first NHL goal. He remembers it like this: "'Holy crap, the puck's on my stick.' I honestly just tried to get the shot off."

The advice from the top is straightforward. "Keep it simple," is the counsel Linden has offered McCann.

Last week against Montreal, McCann connected the dots between generations. He scored two first-period goals in Vancouver's 5-1 win, becoming the first Canucks teenager to score twice in an NHL game since Feb. 28, 1990, when a 19-year-old Linden scored twice.

Stewarding the teenagers is a team effort, Benning said. Beyond their solid play, a prime reason to keep the two on the Canucks was to manage how they evolve in everything from skill training to diet and fitness.

"There'll be times when the kids aren't playing good, Benning said. "Everybody's got to part to be part of the process for it to work."