Sven Baertschi Requests Trade

It has been a trying season for Canucks winger Sven Baertschi.  After being expected to be a regular in Vancouver’s lineup, he instead passed through waivers unclaimed and has spent most of the season with AHL Utica.  His agent Andre Rufener told TSN 1040’s Rick Dhaliwal (Twitter links) that Baertschi has requested a trade and has received permission from GM Jim Benning to try to work with other teams to find a new place for him to play.

The 27-year-old dealt with multiple concussions last season that limited him to just 26 games with Vancouver.  However, he was relatively productive in that stretch with nine goals and five assists while he had reached at least 28 points in each of the three prior seasons.

To his credit, Baertschi has also been productive in the minors this year, collecting 22 points in just 15 games while chipping in with a pair of assists in six games with the Canucks when he was up on recall last month.

That’s a reasonable track record of production to work off of but with a $3.367MM cap hit through 2020-21 and the recent concussions, it also wasn’t surprising that he cleared waivers at the end of training camp.  To find a trade partner, it seems to be a given that Vancouver will need to retain part of Baertschi’s contract and/or take a similarly-priced deal in return.  With the roster freeze now less than a week away, it seems unlikely that a trade will be in place by then but it may be something to watch for once the calendar flips to 2020 as teams in need of scoring depth may come calling then.