A defenseman that spent a complicated time as a Toronto Maple Leaf has decided to hang up his skates for good.
Announced by the NHL on Monday morning, blueliner Tyson Barrie has decided to retire from professional hockey after a total of 822 games across five different organizations in his career. And one of those organizations was the Toronto Maple Leafs for one, interesting, season.
After 822 NHL games, Tyson Barrie is calling it a career. 👏
— NHL (@NHL) August 25, 2025
Best of luck in retirement! pic.twitter.com/3lcarmiaZw
Before the 2019-20 season, the Maple Leafs made a trade that would set off a series of events and have so many fans asking "What if?" to themselves several times a day. It was a bigger package with more parts than this, but essentially, Toronto dealt homegrown center Nazem Kadri to the Colorado Avalanche for Barrie, and center Alex Kerfoot. It is a move that now some view as one of the worst trades for the Leafs in modern history.
And now, with Barrie's retirement from professional hockey at the age of 34 and Kadri going off to be rumoured as a key trade deadline piece for some of the best hockey teams on the planet, it feels even more lopsided.
During the 2019-20 season -- his only one with the Maple Leafs -- Barrie scored five goals and 39 points in 70 games. He had a minus-7 rating and took a whole 16 penalty minutes. His offense, compared to his days in Colorado, was suffocated -- his shots on goal went down, his shooting percentage suffered, and he wasn't anywhere close to the reliable 50-point offensive defenseman he was when lighting it up with Nathan MacKinnon in Denver.
Ultimately, Barrie moved on to go sign with the Oilers the following offseason, was a miniscule part in the trade that brought Mattias Ekholm to Edmonton, and then signed a one-year deal with the Calgary Flames for last season. Barrie was only able to play 13 games with the Flames.
The Victoria, B.C. native hangs up his skates with a total of 822 games played, 110 goals scored, 508 points earned, and a minus-82 rating. Barrie might be the last of his kind -- an offensive defenseman that isn't all-world elite. Teams can live with Erik Karlsson or Lane Hutson not caring too much about defense if they're putting up dozens and dozens of points in a month, but for the likes of Barrie, teams might now just opt for the safer defenseman in the end.