Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

The Vancouver Canucks will welcome reliable two-way winger Chris Higgins, who was injured in the club’s very first preseason game in North Saanich back in September, back to the lineup on Wednesday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“(Higgins) seems good to go,” Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins told reporters on Wednsday, adding that Higgins will replace Baertschi in the lineup.

Under-appreciated by Canucks fans for his ability to contribute in all three zones, Higgins should help a third line that is also expected to include Jannik Hansen and Bo Horvat. Considering the way Desjardins has fed Horvat, 20, a steady diet of difficult defensive assignments in the early going, the young centreman can use the help of all of the quality two-way wingers he can get.

Baertschi, meanwhile, will draw out of the lineup despite putting together a very solid game on Monday against the Philadelphia Flyers. The skilled 22-year-old winger has four assists in 10 games, and has looked to the eyes like he’s struggling pretty significantly in battles along the boards in the offensive zone.

On the other hand, Baertschi has been one of Vancouver’s few forwards in the black by shot-attempt differential and what our eyes perceive as him ‘struggling’ may, in fact, just be a rush of bad bounces. With Baertschi on the ice the Canucks are converting on just over four percent of their shots at 5-on-5, an unsustainably low shooting clip that will certainly regress going forward.

One thing that will be interesting to see is whether or not Higgins factors in immediately on the Canucks’ dominant penalty kill. In contrast with last year when Desjardins ran six forwards as penalty-killing regulars (including the Sedin twins), the Canucks have leaned heavily on a core group this season – Horvat, Hansen, Brandon Sutter and Alex Burrows. That group has been getting the job done early, and Hansen and Burrows are excellent two-way players, but Higgins has been a super, super elite penalty killer in terms of shot suppression over the past four years.