Toronto Maple Leafs UFA Options: Ivan Barbashev
Ivan Barbashev was someone who Kyle Dubas supposedly tried to acquire in the Ryan O’Reilly trade back in February, and looking back on it now, it is extremely unfortunate that Dubas could not get him in the deal.
Last season, Barbashev recorded a career-high in points with 60, his previous best being 26.
Before being traded to the Vegas Golden Knights, he had 29 points in 59 games with a struggling St. Louis Blues team.
However, once arriving in Sin City, Barbashev made an immediate impact, putting up 16 points in 23 regular season games.
His great production continued into the post season as he tallied 18 points in 22 playoff games en route to winning his second Stanley Cup of his career.
Barbashev won his first Cup in St. Louis back in 2019, but only had six points in 25 games during that cinderella run.
During this years postseason, it became aware that he did not fear from laying a big hit or getting into scrums, as seen when Barbashev laid a revere-hit on Radko Gudas, taking him out of play.
Doing that to someone Gudas’ size is extremely hard to do, and Barbashev made it almost like his signature move, reverse-hitting anyone that got in his way.
This is one of the players that the Toronto Maple Leafs desperately need, and hopefully Brad Treliving can pull this one off. (stats hockeydb.com).