Sven Baertschi Update

 

 

We didn’t get to see much of Sven Baertschi at the WJC since he got injured very early on. He missed a few games for Portland thanks to lingering concussion symptoms after the tournament, but has since returned to duty. Things haven’t gone quite as swimmingly for the 19-year old winger upon his return however.

It’s safe to say Baertschi is suffering through the worst stretch of the season. In January he played six games, scoring three goals and six points, but going a cumulative -7. Actually, Baertschi has only been a plus player in just one of his last 10 games. He was held pointless in three of those games and scored more than one point in just one of those contests.

So it’s been a less than stellar post WJC stretch for Sven. Of course, Baertschi was bound to slow down from his torrid early season pace that saw him scoring at CHL high rate. The hope now, I think, is that he eventually settles somewhere between that dominance and his current lackluster performance.

In terms of point totals and splits, Baetschi’s PPG pace has slowed to 1.90, which projects to "just" 125 points over 66 games (his GP total from last season). His even strength % has marginally increased to 56.7% since the last time we looked, but his percentage of team offense has plumeted to 43.6% from the 51% or so it was in December. That is still a pretty impressive number, but it isn’t nearly as eye-popping as garnering one half of a team’s offense.

Baertschi is still on pace to record the most impressive 18-19 year old season by any Flames forward prospect in a very long time. He remains the organization’s most promising youngster.

That said, the recent stretch suggests some of the hype surrounding the kid should be tempered a little bit.