Friedman: "Universally negative" reviews on Baertschi's AHL play

Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet 960 Monday morning.

On the Flames calling up Sven Baertschi:

“The timing of it was a little bit interesting for me because in doing my show prep on the week, I happened to speak to three teams that had seen him play in Adirondack. And the review on him was universally negative. They were like, ‘He’s not really competing hard, he’s not really playing that well.’ There were beginning to wonder what the future would be and as a couple of guys said to me there’s no way Calgary can be happy with this.

“The thing is, I looked into it. I’ll give the Calgary guys credit. They really stood up for him. They said, ‘Look, here’s a guy who is not going to be happy with going back to the American Hockey League. Here’s a guy who wants to be in the NHL, feels he should be in the NHL.’ And they understood that initially when he went back down to the AHL that he was going to be disappointed.

“What they really fought back against was the fact that he was a negative guy or that he was causing a problem down there. There have been teams in the past, who they get a guy in there American Hockey League team and if he’s negative, they’re like,’We cannot have this here.’

“Because I know Calgary feels they have some decent young players there. They don’t want negativity around them. So they really fought back against that belief. They said, ‘Look, he’s not scoring. But the idea that he’s been a drain on people or he’s being negative around people – we’re going to defend him against that because we don’t believe that to be the case.’

“And they said they felt in the last week he was starting to play better and getting going, but just wasn’t getting any luck.

“So the thing is too, and this is the thing I always check, is when is the player eligible for waivers. Because that’s usually when a team has to really make a call on someone. ‘Do we want to risk losing him for nothing?’ And I don’t believe he’s eligible for waivers until next season.

“So I think the Flames still feel like they have some time. I know there’s a lot of debate about whether or not he’s a Brian Burke player. But the one thing I learned on the weekend is that this team is really fighting hard against what appears to be the position from outside that this guy hasn’t tried hard since he’s gotten back to the American Hockey League.”

On the notion that the Flames don’t need to see if Baertschi can hack it in the AHL, that they need to see if he can hack it in the NHL:

“I agree with that Dean, but I think one of the biggest things right now is people give up quickly now. We’re not a very patient world.

“And last night you guys ran roughshod over the Montreal Canadiens, but there’s a guy on that roster who you’ll remember three or four years ago they wanted to run out of Montreal and that was Carey Price. They said he would never get it. He was too much of a party animal. Halak was the better goalie. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

“And what happened? He turned out to be the cornerstone of the franchise and one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League.

“I think Lou Lamoriello has a great saying, and that saying is, ‘If you have time, use it.’ And I believe with this guy, you still have time. And I would wait, with a guy with his talent, I’m waiting before I absolutely have to before I’m saying, ‘Okay, you’re out.’ And I think that’s what Calgary’s trying to do. It’s hard to find skill and scoring in this league. I understand he’s been frustrating. I understand if the Flames would feel frustrated with him, especially with some of the way he’s played down there. But it sounds like the organization is saying, ‘Despite however we may feel privately, we’re going to defend him publically and we’re not giving up on him yet.’”

Also:

“The worst thing we do right now – all the games are on television. Even the American Hockey League, if you want to find their games you can – we pick people apart. And sometimes we need to sit back there and say, ‘You know what? We’ve got to watch for some growth.’ And I think that’s the right move to make all the time. 100 percent of the time.”

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey