Jake Virtanen’s Swiss departure not what it seems: New German team

Jake Virtanen has a new team and it’s come to his defence after he had an acrimonious split from his previous team.

After being cut at the end of training camp by the Edmonton Oilers, Virtanen landed a spot in November with EHC Visp, who were midway through their season in the Swiss second division.

A productive season followed for Virtanen as the former NHL scored 15 goals in just 21 games, the third-most goals on the team by the end of the regular season.

But in the third-to-last game of the season, Virtanen was benched in the third period by his coach and then got into an argument on the bench with one of his teammates at the end of the game — Swiss media said it got physical — which led to Virtanen being suspended for the final two games of the season.

Multiple reports in the Swiss press suggested that Virtanen’s Visp teammates told the team’s management that Virtanen was a bad teammate and that he had to go, even with the playoffs looming.