It's not as simple as "ROR instead of Kadri." If they had kept O'Reilly this team would be looking VERY different right now. There's certainly not guarantee that MacKinnon would've taken the discounted deal he did, and I'm not certain the Avs would've had the cap room to keep guys like Landeskog either.
I'm not here defending the trade, it doesn't look great at present, but sure as hell a lot better than what the stupid Sabres got for him.
Barrie is extremely overrated around here. The guy should've been a forward. A guy making 7+ million should also be able to play defense. Toronto fans know this now as well. He's an extremely likeable dude with a great personality, but he just can't play defense.
Oh this again.
Barrie is a perfectly fine puckmoving D. He might be on the decline, I don't know, but he was among one of the most consistent and dynamic offensive defensemen in the league while he was in Colorado. His faults were obvious but no, he shouldn't be a forward any more than a guy like Erik Karlsson should be a forward (and yes, I went there, even though Barrie is not on the same level as EK65). And there are plenty of defensemen like him in the league who make up for their play away from the puck with their play with the puck.
Anyway, I wish we'd all just move on from Tyson Barrie. He's gone. Avs have a very exciting mix of defensemen either on the roster or on their way. Barrie will likely get a decent chunk of change to play out the remainder of his career, and while I hope to hell it's not in the goddamned division, I hope he gets to play it out with relative success.
