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Canucks recall Sven Baertschi from Utica
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Thomas Drance
Apr 3, 2015, 13:17 EDTUpdated:
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Photo Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports
On Friday morning the Vancouver Canucks announced the recall of recently acquired former Calgary Flames top prospect Sven Baertschi from the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League. 
Since being acquired by the Canucks at the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline for a 2015 second-round draft pick, Baertschi has been on fire in Utica. The diminutive, skilled Swiss-born forward has scored seven goals while contributing 13 points in 12 games with the Comets. For the year he’s managed 15 goals and 23 assists in 48 AHL games – a solid scoring clip for a 22-year-old.
Read past the jump.
The timing of the Baertschi recall is interesting, and we’ll be curious to see whether or not a regular Canucks forward misses Friday’s highly anticipated practice in Winnipeg with an injury. It’s possible that the club has recalled Baertschi just to evaluate him a bit against NHL competition now that the Comets have secured a playoff spot and first spot in the AHL’s North Division.
While that might seem somewhat unlikely, I believe that the club does have a non-emergency recall remaining in their pocket. After the mechanics of the NHL trade and AHL clear day deadline the club had one recall of the non-emergency variety remaining, and I don’t believe they used it when they sent Jacob Markstrom back to Utica in March to get in a couple of games.
That’s essentially what Canucks general manager Jim Benning suggested is going on during an appearance on Sportsnet 590 the Fan on Friday.
“We traded for Sven at the deadline, and then Trevor and I went down on Wednesday and watched him play and he had a real good game,” Benning said of Baertschi. “He had two goals and he could’ve had another two. Since we’ve acquired him he’s played well down there for us.
“After the game last night I talked to (head coach Willie Desjardins) and we were maybe going to wait and call him up at the very end, but we said, y’know let’s call him up now while he’s playing real good and give him a chance and see where he’s at.”
Here’s how Rhys Jessop evaluated Baertschi in the aftermath of last month’s trade:
While it’s looking unlikely that Baertschi can still develop into a high-end first-line winger, he’s still young enough that explosive improvement is possible. Hell, Nino Niederreiter was in a similar situation and was traded for less, but has developed into a very good middle-6 scoring and play driving winger after a change of scenery. This is the type of player the Canucks will look for Baertschi to become, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Playing devil’s advocate, Niederreiter is also virtually the same age as Baertschi, but began making huge strides last season. This isn’t a zero-risk pickup for the Canucks, and it’s not the clear win we think the Forsling-Clendening trade could be either. Still, Baertschi has very, very good upside, and should grow into an extremely nice complementary scorer if everything goes well, similar to a Radim Vrbata or Joffrey Lupul. It won’t be until 5-6 years down the road when we can definitively say who won this deal, but as it stands today, I like Vancouver’s chances.
At Friday’s practice Baertschi was taking rushes on a line with Bo Horvat and Jannik Hansen. So it would seem that the dawn of the Baertschi era of Vancouver Canucks hockey will come this Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.

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