Former Portland Winterhawks star Sven Bartschi is back in the rose city, but this time as an assistant coach.
During his playing tenure in Portland, Bartschi put up 67 goals and 112 assists for 179 points in 113 regular season games. In the playoffs, he tallied 24 goals and 37 assists for 61 points in 43 games.
Bartschi was drafted by the Calgary Flames 13th overall in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
“I left Switzerland at a young age,” Bartschi said. “I took a leap of faith and tried it, and it turned out really good for me, and I ended up getting drafted.”
Bartschi learned a lot from his experience as a player at the major junior and professional levels. He said he’s just going to pass on what he knows, especially to the forwards since he was one.
“I think that’s the biggest thing, and then obviously learning tons of new stuff, since it’s my first time coaching,” Bartschi said. “So I’m learning a ton of stuff from Kyle (Gustafson) and Mike (Johnston), so it’s been, it’s been a good learning experience for me too.”
Travis Green, now head coach of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators was a big influence on Bartschi during his time at the WHL, AHL and NHL levels. Bartschi played under Green at all levels. Green was the head assistant coach with Portland, head coach of the Utica Comets and then the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks for a few years.
He said Green was a great mentor for him and always found a way to push him further.
“Once I realized that really wanted to do this, he was one of the first people I called,” Bartschi said. “I’m always going to look for guidance from him whenever I have a chance, but obviously he’s extremely busy these days.
He said he’s definitely somebody he can get in touch with and who can him out when it comes to guidance and culture.
Bartschi said it wasn’t always the easiest thing coming out of a game he played, but it was clear that he received the proper support from the Winterhawks coaching staff.
“They brought me in right away, and they supported me since day one,” Bartschi said. “I’ve been working hard at it.”
Before he took over as a full-time assistant coach, Bartschi was helping out at home games at the suggestion of Johnston.
“He gave me a great opportunity to just kind of get my feet wet in all sorts of situations where, you know, being there for home games,” Bartschi said. “I was watching home games. I was downstairs during the intermissions, he involved me in a little bit of everything except the road. I didn’t go on the road with them, but I was able to just be at practices, go on the ice, I was living the home game life.”
He said he was able to figure out what he liked about coaching and where his path was going to be. According to Bartschi, he told Johnston he really wanted to do what they do with developing players, grow as humans and hopefully make it to the NHL.
“They develop these young kids into young men,” Bartschi said. “From my experience, when I was coming from Switzerland, I started growing up fairly quickly, and it was because of how Mike and, at the time, Travis and Kyle treated their players.”
Coming in as an assistant coach, he said he wanted the players to understand he has the knowledge of what it takes to become a pro. Not just that, but Bartschi has won a championship at the AHL levels.
“Those are all the things I had to learn,” Bartschi said.
Green was another former player who went through a similar path Bartschi noted.
“I just remember having that connection with him,” Bartschi said. “That similar connection is what I’m seeking now with our players where I can just guide them in the right direction.”
He said their players go to NHL camps and are amazed at the pace the other players play at.
“I know what that’s like, so I can relate to them, and I felt exactly the same in my first few NHL camps,” Bartschi said.
The NHL is a step up and Bartschi noted the responsibilities, specifically on defense.
“In juniors, I was a really, really offensive-minded player, and I learned quickly that I wasn’t just going to get by with trying to score goals, being a point getter and being a top power play guy and all that stuff,” Bartschi said.
He said he had to develop a defensive game and had to develop and battle against men who are big and strong.
“You have to compete and you have to leave it all out there,” Bartschi said. “That’s not easy as a 19-year-old kid. There was a lot that I had to learn.”
He said he had some coaches that embedded a lot of things in his brain right away in order for him to succeed.
“If this thing was going to work if I was going to be playing in the NHL, there’s ABC,” Bartschi said. “Those are things I have to do in order for me to play in the NHL, and a lot of it had to do with being reliable defensively for me, and my compete level had to be really high.”
He wants to take that experience and help the current players succeed and move forward.
“Any input that I think can help these young kids move forward, I’m going to give it to them,” Bartschi said. “Anything I see that, I think, ok, we have to tweak this, we have to help out here, I think that’s where I want to help.”
Personally he just wants to grow as a coach and said there’s a lot more to being a junior hockey coach.
“There’s development, there’s really young players that we have to look after, there’s a lot to it,” Bartschi said. “I’m just trying to help the Winterhawks grow as an organization. Any input from me that helps, I’m going to give it to them.”
He said the big thing is developing skill and letting them know what it takes, but also to succeed as a team.
“You want to have success with your team, you want to have your team come together and play together,” Bartschi said. “A lot of it is learning how to teach.”
He had high praise for the current staff from Johnston to Gustafson and others with how they’ve been great teachers for him.
“I’m in that phase right now, I’m learning how to teach,” Bartschi said. “I might see things through a different lens, I might see things too much as a pro player.”
He said his mindset is something he’s definitely had to work on. Bartschi said he has to be able to adapt with the younger players, which is something he’s been learning and working on. He wants to provide any input that will help the whole organization move forward.
As a coaching staff, they’re taking it a game at a time. He said they’ve been putting an emphasis on practice. Bartschi said that while they want to win games, they also want to develop their players as they go along. He said they have a lot of room to grow as a younger team this year, but that there’s a lot of upside, a lot of good players and they’re excited for what’s ahead for them. He thinks they’re trending in the right direction with how they’ve played so far this season.
While they didn’t clinch a championship during his playing tenure with Portland, they participated in two different championship series against the Kootenay ICE and Edmonton Oil Kings. He said going to those two championship series was a great experience. Bartschi noted the tight-knit group and how they were all pulling in the same direction and how those teams all had that.
“It was coming from within the team,” Bartschi said. “Building that kind of culture in your team, it was something I remember.”
He said that made it fun.
But Bartschi is happy to be back in Portland as part of the Winterhawks organization.
“It’s special to be back here again in Portland and being an assistant coach and learning the game from a different angle,” Bartschi said. “Just thankful for the opportunity to showcase myself and, you know, help the team win here and in my fashion as a coach now.”
Northwest Sports Desk 