The Toronto Maple Leafs trade for Tyson Barrie last summer.
In one of the biggest blockbuster trades of 2019, the Toronto Maple Leafs sent Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen (since re-acquired) to the Colorado Avalanche for Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfott.
Despite this trade being a massive win for the Leafs in every single possible way, almost all fans of the team disagree.
There has been no trade that better illustrates the difference between the Toronto Maple Leafs philosophy and traditional hockey dogma.
Revisiting the Toronto Maple Leafs and Avalanche Trade
Traditionally, the Leafs miss Kadri’s grit, Kerfoot is useless and Barrie is terrible defensively, and plays a game too similar to the defensemen they already have.
The Leafs, however, see it differently:
Grit is massively overrated. Kadri’s only real value was in offense, but the team isn’t missing what he brings to the table in that regard because a) they already are close to being the highest scoring team in the NHL and b) they can’t give him enough ice-time as a third line centre to fully take advantage of his scoring prowess.
Kerfoot on the other hand is cheaper, younger and puts up significantly better numbers without the puck. He scores less, but is so much better defensively that he’s actually the more valuable player overall.
Kerfoot just doesn’t make the big plays that fans remember, so he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He is subtly good, but that doesn’t win you a lot of fans.
He also scored at the same 5v5 rate per minute as John Tavares did this year.
If we put aside emotions and look objectively, the Toronto Maple Leafs win a one-for-one trade where they swap Kadri for Kerfoot.
This makes Tyson Barrie a bonus. Found money, if you will.
Tyson Barrie
Consider that Colorado also took on half his cap hit, and he’s one of the better value plays in the entire NHL.
The lack of fan appreciation for Tyson Barrie comes directly from a misunderstanding about defenseman. He seems to be bad at actual defense, he doesn’t hit, and he so he is unpopular with a significant portion of Leafs Nation.
The thing is though, the stuff that we remember about defense (breaking up big plays, throwing big hits, or giving the puck away) always gets weighted too heavily in people’s evaluations.
Tyson Barrie is a really effective player because the team scores more than the opposition when he’s on the ice. Doesn’t matter how he gets it done, the fact is he gets it done. This how the Leafs look at defensemen.
It’s why they will dress six puck movers. It’s why they let Hainsey walk and why they don’t have any “defensive defensemen” on the roster.
We all know that Mike Babcock and Tyson Barrie didn’t mix. But I don’t think people understand just how good Barrie was under Sheldon Keefe.
From the day Keefe was hired, Tyson Barrie is tied for third among NHL defenseman in 5v5 scoring. This is a much more important stat than overall scoring.
But even if we include the power-play, he’s 13th overall in total scoring, which is still elite.
Under Keefe, Barrie put up a 52% possession rating, and the Toronto Maple Leafs scored 56% of the total goals when he was on the ice.
Barrie put up a solid 52% expected goals rating, while the Leafs got 52% of all scoring chances and 53% of dangerous scoring chances while he was on the ice. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Those are the numbers of a very, very effective NHL defenseman. Add in the elite offense and you have an elite player.
Also worth pointing out: for the short time (11 games) he was paired with Morgan Rielly, the two were absolutely dominant and the Leafs got almost 60% of the total goals.
Unless the Toronto Maple Leafs are gifted Alex Pietrangelo, they should just re-sign Tyson Barrie.
Bottom line: they got so much value out of Kerfoot and Barrie that objectively speaking, last summers trade was a homerun.
The Leafs won this trade in the same way that 2 +2 = 4.
You might not like it, and that’s fine. Kadri was a really popular player and it sucked to see him traded. But the facts are the facts.
We can measure and compare what every player involved in this trade did, and the players the Leafs got performed way, way better than the players they traded.
Leafs win this trade by a mile.