For his own good, the all-time player for the Vancouver Canucks has officially announced his retirement.
After ten NHL seasons, Swiss winger Sven Baertschi has formally declared his retirement.
Although the news has been rumored since early August, the NHL Alumni officially announced it today. The 30-year-old Baertschi announced his retirement in a statement, citing health issues as the reason he had to end his career so quickly.
I have mixed emotions as I announce my retirement from professional ice hockey today. It’s a difficult choice. Ice hockey is a physical sport that requires complete physicality. I’ve had several injuries, like most players, and they’re starting to get to me. I came to the realization that my body could no longer function as well as I needed it to after months of training. I can’t accept that and play with less than my all.
After playing for the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, and Vegas Golden Knights for ten seasons, Baertschi announces his retirement. During that time, he scored 138 points, 72 assists, and 66 goals in 292 games.
He was selected by the Flames in the first round of the 2011 NHL Draft, 13th overall. He played for the Flames for portions of four seasons, tallying eight goals, twenty assists, and twenty-eight points in 66 games.
At the 2015 trade deadline, Baertschi asked to be traded, and the Canucks acquired him in exchange for their second-round pick in 2015, which they used to select defenseman Rasmus Andersson. With 58 goals, 52 assists, and 110 points in 225 games over six seasons with the Canucks—including a career-high 18 goals, 17 assists, and 35 points in 68 games in 2016–17—Baertschi established himself as a regular NHL player.
He played one game for the Golden Knights but was held pointless, and after his play deteriorated, he signed a one-year contract with the team and played the entire 2020–21 season in the AHL with the Utica Comets. In 2021–22, he did the same.
The previous season, Baertschi played for Bern SC in the Swiss National League, where he finished with four goals, ten assists, and fourteen points in thirty-six games.
The trivia game sweeping the hockey world is called puckdoku. It’s the NHL equivalent of the three-by-three fill-in-the-blank game known as “Immaculate Grid,” which started out as an MLB game but swiftly inspired copies for a variety of other sports leagues.
The idea is straightforward: try to come up with a player for each square who meets the requirements given by the corresponding X- and Y-axis labels. Ray Bourque, for instance, would look right at home in a Boston Bruins/Colorado Avalanche square. Patrick Roy would fit in perfectly in Colorado or Montreal. You understand.
Of course, it goes a little further than that. Sometimes, instead of teams, Puckdoku employs statistical thresholds (“200+ goals”) or career achievements (“Olympic gold medalist”) as categories. Also, if you wish to utilize a Minnesota North Stars player for the Dallas Stars or an original Winnipeg Jets player for the Arizona Coyotes, you can.
Naturally, certain players are more useful for Puckdoku than others. Someone like Maurice Richard, who spent his whole career with the Montreal Canadiens, is very useless for the game until a Habs label occurs to intersect with the right statistical category.
Conversely, athletes who have played for multiple NHL teams are among of the best in Puckdoku. And the more obscure the player, the lower (and better) your “uniqueness” score will be. Both Jarome Iginla and Blake Comeau are good answers for Calgary/Pittsburgh, but one is a touch less well-known than the other.
Over the following few weeks, we’re going to spend some time here at Daily Faceoff showcasing three players affiliated with each NHL franchise that are particularly valuable in games of Puckdoku. We’ll keep on with the Detroit Red Wings today.
Todd Bertuzzi
Teams: Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, Vancouver Canucks, and New York Islanders
It’s unlikely that the New York Islanders anticipated Todd Bertuzzi, who they selected with the No. 23 overall pick in the 1993 NHL Draft, would go on to establish himself as one of the league’s most formidable power wingers almost ten years later. They most likely didn’t think he would carry out one of the most infamous violent crimes on NHL ice in history. In summary, Bertuzzi distinguished himself in multiple domains during the course of his 1,159 NHL games. In addition, Tyler Bertuzzi is, in fact, his nephew.
Although Bertuzzi briefly played in the IHL the next year, he went straight from the OHL to the Islanders in the 1995–96 season. Midway through the 1997–98 season, Bertuzzi was traded to the Vancouver Canucks after appearing to lose some of his scoring touch in his sophomore year, despite early praise from then-GM Mike Milbury for his Islanders tenure.
Bertuzzi finally became one of the Canucks’ best forwards in the new millennium after experiencing some early growing pains in Vancouver. He became an important part of the “West Coast Express” line alongside Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison in the 2001–02 campaign. Bertuzzi placed third in the NHL with 46 goals and fifth with 97 points during the 2002–03 season. However, Bertuzzi received an extended suspension in 2004 for using a sucker punch to seriously hurt Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore. This was largely perceived as revenge for a prior confrontation between Moore and Naslund. Moore broke his neck and had a serious concussion. He never returned to the NHL after the incident and eventually sued Bertuzzi. In addition to being suspended for the final 20 games of the 2003–04 season and being declared ineligible to play abroad during the 2004–05 lockout, Bertuzzi also entered a guilty plea to an assault charge in a British Columbian court.
After making a comeback to the Canucks for the 2005–06 season, Bertuzzi excelled once more and won a gold medal for Canada in the Winter Olympics held in Italy in 2006. However, others in Vancouver contended that the team’s absence from the playoffs for the first time since 2000 was due to a distraction caused by the aftermath of the Moore incident. The Canucks dealt All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers in June 2006 as part of an absurdly unbalanced trade that sent Bertuzzi to Vancouver.
After making just seven appearances in Panthers games, Bertuzzi’s diagnosis of a herniated disc in his back kept him out of action until March of the following year. Bertuzzi was traded by the Panthers to the Red Wings before he could return, where he played out the 2006–07 season before signing a free agent contract with the Anaheim Ducks. Bertuzzi joined the Ducks and Calgary Flames for brief but fruitful periods before joining the Red Wings again in 2009. He stayed in Detroit for five more seasons, settling into a depth role and occasionally displaying his remarkably deft shootout hands. Bertuzzi played 1,159 games for the Islanders, Canucks, Panthers, Red Wings, Ducks, and Flames, totaling 314 goals, 718 points, and 1,478 penalty minutes.
Teams: Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota North Stars, and Washington Capitals
Even as a member of the home team, Larry Murphy never really heard anything else when he touched the puck at Maple Leaf Gardens. Murphy was unable to shake the boo birds throughout his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, even though he would go on to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on the first vote. In the late 1990s, the six-foot-two defenseman played for the Leafs for portions of two seasons, racking up a respectable 19 goals and 100 points in 151 games. However, when they sent Murphy to the Red Wings at the trade deadline for future considerations in 1996, the Leafs were headed to finish last in the Central Division and had already lost in the first round.
Murphy, who had previously won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992, naturally won back-to-back with the Red Wings, increasing his career total to four. As Detroit rejoiced over those back-to-back titles, the Leafs were completely eliminated from the playoffs in 1997 and 1998. Perhaps Murphy wasn’t solely to blame for what happened in Toronto.
As the fourth overall selection by the Los Angeles Kings in 1980, Murphy lived up to his hype. As a rookie defenseman, he established NHL records with 60 assists and 76 points, and he came in second to Peter Stastny in the Calder Trophy voting. Early in Murphy’s fourth season with the team, the Kings traded him to the Washington Capitals; the Caps later dealt Murphy to the Minnesota North Stars in 1989. Murphy’s career was like this: he was excellent enough to be desired by almost every team in the league, but not so outstanding that he was considered vital.
Murphy arrived in Pittsburgh nearly exactly midway through the 1990–91 season, having played just 121 games in Minnesota. In an effort to increase their prospects of winning the Cup, the Penguins would later that year recruit Ulf Samuelsson, Scott Young, Jiri Hrdina, and a certain someone by the name of Ron Francis. It was successful. Mario Lemieux was the team’s captain, but Murphy, Francis, Paul Coffey, Jaromir Jagr, Mark Recchi, and numerous more players came through for Pittsburgh as they defeated Murphy’s former North Stars in the 1991 Stanley Cup Final and went on to defeat the New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals, and Boston Bruins. Murphy played for the Penguins that season, along with eight other future Hall of Famers. Pittsburgh defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in a rout the next year to capture the Cup once more.
Prior to being dealt to Toronto in 1995, Murphy played in Pittsburgh for portions of five seasons. Murphy was then one of eight future Hall of Fame players on a team that advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in 1997 after being saved by the Red Wings. The Red Wings defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in that season to capture the trophy, and they repeated the feat against the Washington Capitals in 1998. Murphy appeared in 15 Stanley Cup Final games between 1991 and 1998; at 37 years old, he played in all four of those games against the Capitals during the 1998 Final, logging more than 27 minutes per game. What an apparatus!
Murphy has occasionally worked as a commentator on Red Wings television broadcasts since retiring in 2001. During his 1,615 games with the Kings, Capitals, North Stars, Penguins, Maple Leafs, and Red Wings, he concluded his NHL career with 288 goals and 1,217 points.
Teams: Arizona Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks
Troy Stecher has been a fan favorite on all five of his NHL clubs, despite never being one of the best players at his position as Bertuzzi and Murphy were. Despite his small stature, the five-foot-ten defenseman makes up for it with a big heart and a willingness to give up his body to make the correct play.
Originally from Richmond, British Columbia, Stecher played three seasons with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees and three more at the University of North Dakota before signing an entry-level deal with the Vancouver Canucks in 2016. In his first season with the organization, 2016–17, Stecher established himself as a dependable second-pairing defenseman, a role he primarily held for three seasons. Stecher helped the Canucks make the playoffs for the first time since 2015, despite having less playing time in the 2019–20 campaign. He played in 17 games as the Canucks defeated the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights.
In 2020, Stecher became an unrestricted free agent and inked a two-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. During portions of two injury-plagued seasons with the Red Wings, he played in just 60 games before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings at the 2022 trade deadline. The Kings were defeated by the Edmonton Oilers in the opening round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, despite his two goals and four points in four games.
Stecher inked a one-year contract with the Arizona Coyotes following his meager 29 games played with the Red Wings and Kings during the 2021–22 regular season. After getting well again, Stecher played 61 games with the Coyotes and recorded seven assists before being traded to the Calgary Flames in March. In the final 20 games, he equaled his point total with three goals and four assists, but the Flames were unable to make the playoffs. Stecher signed a one-year contract extension with the Coyotes over the offseason.
Stecher has accumulated 18 goals and 103 points in 440 career games with the Canucks, Red Wings, Kings, Coyotes, and Flames. He will be one of the more experienced players on the Coyotes defensive line, which also includes Matt Dumba, Sean Durzi, J.J. Moser, Juuso Valimaki, and Victor Soderstrom. He is currently 29 years old.
Anaheim Ducks (August 10) | Arizona Coyotes (August 11) | Boston Bruins (August 12) | Buffalo Sabres (August 13) | Calgary Flames (August 14) | Carolina Hurricanes (August 16) | Chicago Blackhawks (August 17) | Colorado Avalanche (August 19) | Columbus Blue Jackets (August 20) | Dallas Stars (August 22) | Detroit Red Wings (08/24) • Daily Faceoff Puckdoku series
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