Former Canucks winger Sven Baertschi retiring from pro hockey at age 30: report
He’s only 30 years old, but Sven Baertschi is reportedly retiring from pro hockey.
According to a report from Gregory Beaud of Swiss news outlet Blick, Baertschi has decided to call it a career despite having a contract with Bern SC until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Drafted 13th overall by the Calgary Flames in 2011, Baertschi appeared in 66 NHL games for the Flames before being traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 2015. The skilled forward appeared in 225 games for the Canucks from 2015 to 2020, scoring 110 points.
The Canucks had high hopes for Baertschi, signing him to a three-year, $10.1 million contract in 2018. He was coming off three productive seasons when he signed that deal, scoring 29 points in 53 games in 2017-18, 35 points in 68 games in 2016-17, and 28 points in 69 games in 2015-16.
But he would end up playing just 33 more NHL games after signing that contract.
A concussion limited Baertschi to just 26 games in 2018-19.
“The eyes are the problem,” he said in a Swiss-language interview nearly a month after suffering a concussion in October of 2018. “The puck is a bit hazy. That’s why it’s hard to play this way right now… There are different symptoms, depends on the day. Yesterday it was the eyes, but I also had a headache.”
Baertschi was never the same player again.
The Canucks made him a surprise training camp cut before the 2019-20 season, and the Swiss sniper spent most of the next two seasons in the AHL. Baertschi signed a two-way deal with the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency in 2021, but only appeared in one NHL game with his new team.
Baertschi played last season in Switzerland, scoring 14 points (4-10-14) in 36 games for his hometown team, Bern SC.
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