Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike F
He was initially sent to the Canucks AHL team when the trade went down, playing 15 games, but was called up to end the NHL season and never looked back. You make it sound like he continued to toil in the minors until he made big changes, which is not true.
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And you make it sound as though he was given an opportunity and made the most of it right off the bat. He was waiver-eligible in his first full season with the Canucks and was really only on the roster by necessity. Through the first three months of the season he was borderline useless; Canucks fans and media were convinced he would be little better than a career AHL/NHL 'tweeter; he had 2 goals and 6 points in his first 25-games.
Baertschi deserves credit for becoming a regular NHL player, but his early struggles had much more to do with him than it did Flames management, and the first several months following his trade to the Canucks amply demonstrated as much.