According to the latest NHL trade rumors, multiple teams have contacted the Toronto Maple Leafs to see if defenseman Tyson Barrie is available.
To say the Toronto Maple Leafs have been disappointing this season would be a massive understatement. They entered the season with high hopes, hoping to bring home their first Stanley Cup since 1967. Instead, the Leafs find themselves closer to the bottom of the standings than the top in mid-November. One of their most disappointing players has been Tyson Barrie. And according to the latest NHL trade rumors, the Leafs are receiving trade calls about him.
This report comes from Elliotte Friedman. He commented on the speculation during Saturday’s Headlines segment.
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“He (Barrie) has not asked for a trade,” said Friedman, via Sportsnet. “However, I think there is an understanding that so far it hasn’t worked.”
The Leafs acquired Barrie during the offseason in a massive trade with the Colorado Avalanche. Toronto sent Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen, along with a 2020 third-round pick, to Colorado in exchange for Barrie, Alexander Kerfoot, and a 2020 sixth-round pick. The Avalanche also retained half of Barrie’s cap hit of $5.5 million.
To say Barrie has not performed to his standards would be an understatement. He’s usually one of the NHL’s most productive defensemen. After scoring 14 goals in each of his last two seasons, Barrie has yet to score a goal this season in 22 games.
Entering this season, Barrie ranked ninth among the 154 defensemen with at least 200 games played since the start of the 2015-16 season in points per game. He’s ahead of players such as Dustin Byfuglien, P.K. Subban, and Mark Giordano.
Through 22 games this season, he has just six points. Barrie’s points per game rate of 0.27 is by far a career-low (min. 11 games played). A lot of this can be attributed to his lack of power play time. Over the previous three seasons, Barrie ranked in the top 10 in power play points among defensemen. He averaged well over three minutes per game on the power play during that time. This season, Barrie’s averaging just over two minutes per game on the Leafs second power play unit.
That said, it’s undeniable that he has struggled. It’s worth pointing out Barrie has started just over 55% of his faceoffs in the offensive zone this season. In his previous two seasons, he started over 60% in the offensive zone.
Barrie will be a free agent after this season. It remains to be seen what the Leafs are going to do. But one has to imagine if they keep on struggling, they might be willing to make some drastic changes. One of them could be trading Barrie to ensure they at least get something for him instead of potentially losing him for nothing.
However, given the Leafs cap situation, they might decide to go all-in. Yes, the Leafs are struggling, but they’re undeniably a talented team. Keep in mind the St. Louis Blues were in last place on New Year’s Day of 2019. They won the Stanley Cup a shade over five months later. That might encourage the Leafs to wait things out, but if things don’t improve by February, who knows what might happen.