Baerstchi to miss remaining two games with neck injury

The Vancouver Canucks announced today that Sven Baertschi will miss the remaining two games of the season due to an upper body/neck injury.

Willie Desjardins said he doesn’t believe surgery will be required.

Sven Baertschi left Thursday night’s game against the Arizona Coyotes in the third period and was brought back to Vancouver for re-evaluation.

The 24-year old is in the midst of his best NHL season, having scored 18 goals and 17 assists in 68 games. 16 of those goals have come at even strength.

He led all Canucks in 5v5 points per hour, scoring at a 1.89 clip.

Baertschi has also played 15:53 TOI per game, which is two minutes more per night than his career average of 13:57 per game.

Towards the end of the year, the line of Bo Horvat, Markus Granlund and Baertschi saw a big bump from coach Desjardins.

Baertschi’s TOI got bumped more and more as the season went on and he averaged nearly 18 minutes per night in March and April.

In a season that has been lost due to some poor team performance, Baertschi has been a bright spot on a dark season.

He has one year left on a deal that is paying him $1.85 million a year.

The Canucks acquired Baertschi on March 2nd, 2015 from the Calgary Flames in exchange for a 2015 second round draft pick. The Flames selected Swedish defenceman Rasmus Andersson with the acquired pick.