I'm a baertschi fan so I might be looking at his history over the last few years with some bias... Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.
I feel he has rarely been given the opportunity to really excel at the NHL level and it's due to circumstance lots of times.
In 2012 he had the great call up from junior we all remember and then went back and lot it up for his junior team on a deep playoff run. Most of us thought he would get a real shot at a top six position in the 2012-2013 season... And so did others. He was picked by some analysts to be a contender for the Calder that season. During the lockout that year baertschi played very well in the AHL and was at nearly a ppg if I remember correctly. When the lockout ended he was on the flames roster out of training camp.
The problem became pretty clear to lots of us that flames had way too many left wingers... Cammalleri, tanguay, glencross, comeau, and then it turned out that cervenka was actually a left winger and not a centerman. Baertschi was the only one of those guys that could be sent down without passing through waivers. On top of that, he didn't have much opportunity to excel as a scoring forward to start in the NHL because of all those veterans ahead of him on the depth chart. He pretty much got no powerplay time and didn't get to play with a guy like iginla or hudler. All this lead to baertschi being sent down to the AHL.
After the trade deadline, baertschi got called up and tanguay got hurt. Baertschi all of a sudden was getting legit top 6 minutes and he went on what I believe was an 8 game scoring streak at the end of the year. He was the flames' best forward to finish the season and looked full of confidence and ready to become a full time NHLer.
Then in the off season when asked about calgary's prospects after being hired as president of Hockey ops, Burke came out of left field with criticism targeted at baertschi. None of us had ever had seen any big problems in his game so far but Burke seemed to just attack him as not being skilled enough to just be a scorer in the league.
Baertschi didn't do well in the young stars tourney and there really is no excuse for that. I figure he was feeling like the organization didn't have a lot of faith in him and it affected his confidence.
He and Monahan had instant chemistry together at the start of the season and Monahan had his highest production to date while playing with him. Hartley had some issues with baertschi's defensive game and made him sit out some games. I honestly have never noticed the issues with his defensive game that everyone talked about but seems like it's a consensus that he needed to work on it. I especially thought that there were many other players on the flames roster who were struggling defensively much more than he was.
I do recall one game last season where there was less than 2 minutes left in a tie game, the flames had a face off in their zone and baertschi tried to clear the puck out... The defenseman on the other team knocked the puck out of the air with his stick to keep it in and they scored on Berra to win the game. I only remember this because I knew at the time Hartley would sit out baertschi for that and that's exactly what happened. The guy was struggling with confidence already so I felt bad that he was essentially punished for that. Even though he tries making the smart, simple play of shooting the puck out of the zone... the other team's defenseman just made a great/lucky play to keep it in.
When Feaster was fired... Burke's first act as acting GM was to send Baertschi down to the AHL. It's debatable whether it was warranted or not - I still believe it wasn't but that's just my opinion - but with how sudden it was and the timing made it really seem like Burke had not liked baertschi from the start and sent him down the first chance he got... Possibly as a statement of running the team his way. Even if it wasn't a bias against baertschi from Burke... It certainly appeared like one. I mean, if I was baertschi, I would definitely get the impression that I was unwanted by new management if it took only mere hours to send me down after the previous GM was fired. This was another huge blow to baertschi's confidence and he struggled for months at the AHL level. Not to mention this is where the trade speculation began.
He seemed to get his head in the right place later in the season and started playing great. He was the AHL player of the week in one of the last weeks of the season. This year he didn't make the team out of camp and while he hasn't put up great numbers... It sounds like he's played well just hasn't had any puck luck so far.
This is how I've seen his progress so far. Like I said, I know I'm biased so there is probably a much more neutral version of baertschi's history with the team. I have just been frustrated by his treatment from media and management so far and I hope he plays awesome and is here to stay. Seems like he always impresses when he is put in a position to succeed.
I've never liked the pressure he's faced to completely change his game... The whole "be Brendan Gallagher thing." I agree every player should constantly be trying to improve their game and be better defensively but I also feel it was over the top with baertschi. Don't be Gallagher... Be baertschi. The attempts to completely change him into another player seems to stifle his offensive instincts.
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