Imagine a d-core of:
Dermott - Holl
Marincin - Ceci
Liljegren - Sandin
I know he hasnt been as good as we hoped, but having Barrie is better than our alternative options.... Especially since we are without Rielly and Muzzin.
Without Barrie our defense as of now is: our #5/7 dmen last year as our top pair, 2 guys without any NHL experience, and 2 guys with more NHL experience than their skillsets deserve.
He isnt going to be getting his payday from us and we should probably kove on from Barrie, but he gives us another top 4 dman in a year where our defense will be the weakest (while Sandin/Liljegren transition).
Edit: Options were limited due to capspace and Kadris partial NTC.... He might not have ended up winning the trade, but we needed another Dman and we only had a few to choose from.