Toronto Maple Leafs: Pros and Cons of Trading Tyson Barrie

With the Trade Deadline quickly approaching, the rumours have been swirling around the Toronto Maple Leafs.

One major trade rumour that has quickly emerged is the Toronto Maple Leafs desire to trade away Tyson Barrie.

Barrie, who was acquired in the summer along with Alexander Kerfoot in exchange for Nazem Kadri, has been having an up and down year.

The Leafs made a huge investment on acquiring him and it’s pretty safe to say that he hasn’t been fitting with the Leafs the way he was supposed to. (Although his post-Keefe stats are very good).

The main reason Barrie’s name is in trade talks is because the Leafs want to improve and they aren’t going to be moving the recently locked up Muzzin or Holl. Rielly is their best defenseman, and Sandin and Dermott are the future.

That makes Barrie the obvious place to upgrade.

https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1230941457244094464

Barrie is an impending unrestricted free agent and it’s looking very likely that he won’t be re-signing with the Leafs.

Moving him out makes a lot of sense, but the Leafs are trying to make a deep playoff push, so keeping him on an already thin blue-line also makes a lot of sense.  If they’re going to upgrade on Barrie, it’s got to be worth it.

So let’s quickly go over some pros and cons to the possibility of trading Tyson Barrie .

Pros

Last season, Barrie put up an impressive 59 points with the Colorado Avalanche.

He’s an offensive defenseman who was brought in primarily for that aspect, rather than his defense. With the Leafs, he has scored 33 points so far and is on pace for 43 points, given all goes well.

This season has included its fair share of slumps for Barrie as well. Barrie hasn’t even been the defenseman offensively that the Leafs were expecting, let alone defensively.

The Leafs need a strong, defensive right-handed defenseman. Tyson Barrie is not that, but there’s still time to swap him out for one.

As TSN’s Frank Seravalli reported, the Leafs only really want to deal Barrie away if they can find a better fitting defenseman or flip him for pieces that can work or that can help them acquire that better fitting defenseman.

Of the teams named to be interested in Barrie, there’s a number of potential suitors the Leafs could swap Barrie out for.

Among them include Vancouver’s Troy Stecher, Calgary’s T.J. Brodie and Carolina’s Jake Gardiner and Brett Pesce. A swap for any of these players may make sense for the Leafs, but really only Brodie or Pesce match the value of Barrie on the blue line.

If I was to go about doing a one-for-one swap, I would choose to take one of those two players. Doing this will change up the Leafs defensive composure without losing power on the blue line.

On top of switching things up, the possibility of term is also a benefit. Whether it be picking up a player who already has term or hitting a reset button on a new UFA who may want to stay in Toronto after this season, the possibility is intriguing. The Leafs already have a number of impending UFA’s, so acquiring a defenseman with term is crucial in ensuring they don’t walk away for nothing.

Cons

The biggest difficulty in orchestrating a Barrie trade is finding a deal that doesn’t substantially downgrade the Leafs defensive core (in fact, they should be looking to upgrade if anything).

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t just supposed to be playoff contenders, they are supposed to be Cup contenders this season. That’s why they have so much money wrapped up in four forwards. They have to keep their eyes on the prize here–they can’t be complete sellers.

The Toronto Maple Leafs defensive core is already very weak. Trading Barrie for a few pieces that can possibly be flipped later is risky.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs are unable to flip those pieces soon enough, they’d be going into the playoffs with a subpar blue line, one top-four defenseman shorter. That’s why the only way to go about this deal is by finding that replacement defenseman, which is a gamble nonetheless.

To top things off, Barrie is already one of the most affordable top-four defensemen in the league for this season. Since Colorado is retaining half of his salary already, the Leafs are paying him just $2.75 million this season. Whether the replacement defenseman comes with term or not, it’s going to be hard to find one with the same bang for your buck as Barrie has.

Although a Tyson Barrie trade would be entertaining, especially if it’s done in a two-trade process, we have to think that Kyle Dubas is keeping the team’s best interest in mind.

Only time will tell whether Barrie is still a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs when the clock strikes 3 p.m. on Monday, but for now, let me know in the comments whether you think the Leafs should trade Barrie or not.