[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Crumpy-Gunt

Josh jooris was hardly forcing their hand either. I think he had 27 pts in over a full season in the ahl. How about Joe colborne walking into a roster spot. Drew shore basically doing the same. The whole setoguchi thing and how long they had the poor guy embarrassing himself while Sven was down In Addy or Abby.

This has all been beaten pretty soundly to death. Colborne's waiver situation was a huge factor in the Flames decision, which basically amounted to keeping him on the NHL roster, or assigning him to the AHL and risk losing the player they just acquired in a trade. Josh Jooris had a phenomenal camp, and pretty much forced management's hand to keep him up (It is important to note that in the same context, this is something that Baertschi did not do: he had a very good camp, but it was no where close to how Jooris or Gaudreau performed). Drew Shore, again, will be at high risk of being picked up on waivers upon his next dispatch to the AHL. The "whole Setoguchi thing" had very little bearing upon what Baertschi was or was not doing to earn a spot in Calgary. No, he was not any better than Baertschi, but benefitted greatly by his status as a seasoned NHL veteran. Like it or not, "earned and never given" is not an equal measure that applies equally in every situation. It is a metric by which coaching personnel use to make decisions, but almost certainly not the only metric.

All of this is nothing more than blind naivety. I was and continue to be a Baertschi fan, and I hope he works his stuff out. Having said that, for two years now I have come to expect that he is just not good enough, more complete enough of a player to be much more than a middling NHLer.

Originally Posted by Crumpy-Gunt

Oh did I mention Burke publically bashing the kid. That will do wonders for a prospects confidence and sense of belonging. Everything burke said was true. Just shouldn't have been said on camera. Should have only been a serious chat with the player.

This has been brought up ad infinitum. Most posters were not keen on Burke's approach, myself included. Most also agreed that he was correct in his assessment. I would hope that most finally agree that the incident was badly overblown, and that it should have no bearing on Baertschi's level of success. If it happens to, then I am not sure that is the kind of player a team can count on to make an impact.

Originally Posted by Crumpy-Gunt

Also johnny isn't physical and asides from pokechecks and takeaways using his sleight of hand and tenacity he is just as big a liability defensively as Sven in my view. So if you give johnny the pass on physicality and being a solid 2 way player why can't Sven be an offensive specialist who is put in a position to thrive in the top 6 with pp time. The ahl is also a much much different league.

Are you seriously kidding me? This is beyond obvious. Guardian (EDIT: Awesome autocorrect at work, here!) is given leeway to be an offensive specialist, because he is DAMN GOOD AT IT. Baertschi was not, because he is just not that kind of player any more—not even close. He was a sensational juniour prospect, but I believe that multiple concussions and injuries that followed his draft year had serious debilitating consequences to his level and style of play. I think that this is probably the main reason why Baertschi struggles to play a two way game. He has looked slower, more off-balance, more hesitant, and much less instinctively creative since 2012. I have kept hoping he would turn it around, but at some point one just needs to accept that this is what he is.

Put simply he can't play Gaurdreau's game because he is not capable of doing it. The reason why there has been such a heavy emphasis on building his defensive game? Because coaches have recognised that THIS is how he will succeed. He is just not good enough to get by on his offensive skill—not any more.

Originally Posted by Crumpy-Gunt

I can totally see why he wanted to leave. I'm upset at how we handled things.

Some fans just spew this regurgitated nonsense about earned never given blah blah. Its not the case 100% of the time.

You're right, it's not. But it was certainly a significant factor in Baertschi's handling by the Flames. Again, he just was not good enough, nor better than those players with whom he was competing for a roster spot. He was not better than Gaudreau, nor Jooris, nor Granlund or Ferland at the beginning of the year. Even if he was a better choice than Colborne last year, this was not an instance in which the metric applied because of mitigating circumstances. He was not any better than Setoguchi this Fall, and by the weight of all the factors that go into making roster decisions, the tie went to the veteran.

Originally Posted by Crumpy-Gunt

I wish Sven all the best. Even if its on the nucks. I hope he becomes a perrenial all star because he has the talent and deserves to be seen and treated by some franchise the way we see gaudreau treated here. An offensive dynamo who you don't expect to be lance boumaing around the ice. Because that's not what he is. He wasn't that kind of player in junior and he won't be in the NHL. He will be a winger who is paired with a good 2way center and given a lot of freedom ala gaudreau.

Bullocks. He once had the promise of playing this kind of game, but those days are unfortunately gone. For three years now we have waited for Baertschi to break through offensively and it NEVER HAPPENED. He was given ample opportunities to do so in the AHL and NEVER DID. Perhaps he has finally come through now in Utica, but I am highly sceptical about his ability to translate this at the NHL level.

It is unfortunate what happened to Baertschi. But this is not an instance in which he was held back or broken unfairly by an uncaring management group who stubbornly set different sets of rules for different players based on their personal feelings. Baertschi's potential to succeed in the NHL was sadly dramatically affected by some pretty serious injuries. Expectations foisted unfairly upon him by a rabid fanbase, and his own resulting sense of entitlement didn't help matters a whit.

He may yet make it, but I am hugely sceptical that he will ever be an offensive star in the NHL.