Marner is the better player and 6 years younger, the Avs would be foolish not to make that deal. When you factor in the contract situations it becomes very lopsided. If we were to trade Barrie he would never return anything as valuable as Marner.
6 years younger certainly... better player I'm not fully on board with, nor the contract situation. Marner is a top 5 scoring winger right now. If that is his new norm, than yeah he's a higher level, if slightly. If he is really more a top 10 sort. That is right where Barrie is amongst offensive defensemen. Both would be elite offensive players for their position. Marner plays wing which is less valuable than defensemen. Contract wise... Marner is going to demand 11+m and a 4 or 5 year deal looks like the path that will go down (so UFA at the end). Barrie is going to be in the 7s or 8s and a 5-6 year deal.
This is where I think people underrate Barrie. They see a winger that is having a phenomenal season and is a 90 point sort of guy. He sits exactly 5th in league amongst wingers. While Barrie is 7th in the league amongst defensemen. But that is just 1 season. Combine the past 2 Barrie sits 6th in the league. Marner slides to 10th. Marner is an elite winger and if scoring stays up like this season he is going to be a PPG+ sort of guy for a while. Barrie is an elite defensemen at producing offense... just a handful in the league are better than him at it.
When it comes to the team, Barrie has 34 more points than the next defensemen on the team. He is far and away the offensive driver from the backend on this team. In today's NHL you need that driver from the backend to have a good offense. If Barrie wasn't here, the production would drop significantly.
FTR I get Marner has more value in a trade. I think Barrie has more value to the team.