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This little place in the middle of nowhere may have saved Baertschi’s career because it is where he found clarity during his four-year crawl toward the NHL. And he found it not with skates and a stick, but with headphones and a sketch pad.

“I was in Glens Falls because I got sent down (to the Adirondack Flames) for probably the fifth time,” Baertschi, 24, said Thursday during a quiet conversation about his U-turn in hockey. “There’s not a whole lot to do in Glens Falls, so I was walking around and found a little park and just kind of sat down and listened to music, and started drawing stuff, sketching … I know that sounds a little nerdy, but it was a really peaceful moment.

“I was like: ‘You’ve got time, you’ll get to the NHL. No pressure. Just take your time because not everybody develops at the same speed.’ From that day on, I just kind of told myself I was allowed to make mistakes, then move on. It was a pretty perfect day.”

There’s a lot in that quote.

Sven Baertschi sketches? Yes, and while you may think he draws Flames president Brian Burke getting run over by a bobsleigh or former Calgary coach Bob Hartley being torn apart by John Tortorella’s dogs, usually Baertschi practises graffiti — an art form he learned from his snowboarding brother, Kevin — or a still life from inside his home.

He takes a sketch pad and pencils on long road trips. Baertschi draws to relax, to clear his mind of hockey, to purge the worry and mental baggage that so encumbered him when he seemed constantly out of favour with the Flames and shuttled between Calgary and its farm team, which until 2014 was in Abbotsford.