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“Even though I was on the team last year, things can happen. I can be sent down, but I want to prove to management that I belong here. I’ve got to come into camp and show the coaching staff right away that I’m ready to play. I want to be here and I’m just going to go out and play my hardest. I want to be a dominant player right away and that’s huge.”

The right way means accountability.

It means using that thick 6-1, 208-pound frame to make opposition players feel like they ran into a brick wall. It means skating hard all the time to be a force along the walls and the end boards. It means not coasting on the backcheck or missing your assignment in the defensive zone. It means a lot. But if Virtanen wants to take a giant development step and move from project to roster regular in his second season, the sixth overall pick in the 2014 draft can’t pick his spots. He has to be all in, all the time.

Virtanen certainly sounds like he understands what’s at stake.

“It’s being an every-day guy — you can’t take any days off,” he agreed. “You can’t just dip your toes in. You have to be a guy the players appreciate and for a new guy coming into the league, that’s a big change. You’ve go to have that mindset. Look at Hank and Danny (Sedin). They’re every-day guys and they stay consistent and do everything to make themselves better.”

The Sedins were hard on the kids last season because there should never be a sense of entitlement. Virtanen averaged 11:33 of playing time in 55 games and managed seven goals and six assists. He also managed to irk the coaching staff when his attention span would waver or his conditioning wasn’t where it should be. And if that’s the case through the pre-season or in the early stages of the regular season, he turns 20 on Aug. 17 and could be sent to the AHL’s Utica Comets. He could play 20 minutes a night there, get some tough love from coach Travis Green and be better for it.