Prospect Info: Justin Barron

[DAChampion]

I will continue to maintain HuGo got anally raped on the Lekhonen deal

You're just making an ass of yourself.

 

[badfish]

8 points in his last 10
Now has the highest PPG for rookie defensemen (minimum 10 games)
Second lowest TOI in the top 10 of rookie ppg
Even on +/-

36 NHL games. Can't wait to see what this guy looks like with 200 NHL games under his belt.

 

[the]

https://www.tvasports.ca/2023/03/24/justin-barron-une-prise-de-conscience-a-tout-change?utm_medium=cxense&utm_source=tvanouvelles.ca&utm_campaign=reco#cxrecs_s

Justin Barron’s recent play has really gone under the radar. This is a nice read about Crosby’s friend. Since January 17th he’s been on a 52 points pace. In his last 22 games he’s got 14 points. Only Matheson got a slightly better production but he’s playing 10 more minutes each night.

Barron’s current streak of 9 weeks is the 29th best points total in the league. This is with less minutes and barely any PP mins. He needs to work on his defensive game since he still struggles from time to time but at only 21 years old this is normal.

We are starting to see the immense potential that Crosby was talking about. I’m looking forward to seeing Barron blossom the next few years.

Shame of the people who were writing him off earlier in the season.

 

[BLNY]

I have a hard time not liking what I've seen from Barron. I hope he can stay healthy to realize his potential. His passing and offensive vision are fantastic. He seems to know just when to jump into the play.

 

[Tyson]

I have a hard time not liking what I've seen from Barron. I hope he can stay healthy to realize his potential. His passing and offensive vision are fantastic. He seems to know just when to jump into the play.

An excellent prospect for sure.

 

[DinosaurBones]

We all have a right to our opinions - I will continue to maintain HuGo got anally raped on the Lekhonen deal

Defend yourself.
Why and how, right now, is Lehkonen worth more being a Hab than Barron

 

[26Mats]

I have a hard time not liking what I've seen from Barron. I hope he can stay healthy to realize his potential. His passing and offensive vision are fantastic. He seems to know just when to jump into the play.

Hopefully he can continue doing well offensively - and also become a defensive force.

 

[salbutera]

Defend yourself.
Why and how, right now, is Lehkonen worth more being a Hab than Barron

IMO HuGo did not optimize return on Lehkonen - very poor asset management

You win with Lekhonen, Barron is a shiny object that lacks depth - I just don’t see him as anything more than a 3rd pairing Dman & PP specialist, hence my stance. Whereas Lekhonen can be slotted anywhere in any situation and will always provide 100% effort - regular season or playoffs.

 

[26Mats]

IMO HuGo did not optimize return on Lehkonen - very poor asset management

You win with Lekhonen, Barron is a shiny object that lacks depth - I just don’t see him as anything more than a 3rd pairing Dman & PP specialist, hence my stance. Whereas Lekhonen can be slotted anywhere in any situation and will always provide 100% effort - regular season or playoffs.

Unless one has a crystal ball, no one knows exactly what Barron will become. So we'll see in 3 to 5 years what prime Barron is and then we'll know whether HuGo optimized return on Lehkonen or not.

 

[DinosaurBones]

IMO HuGo did not optimize return on Lehkonen - very poor asset management

You win with Lekhonen, Barron is a shiny object that lacks depth - I just don’t see him as anything more than a 3rd pairing Dman & PP specialist, hence my stance. Whereas Lekhonen can be slotted anywhere in any situation and will always provide 100% effort - regular season or playoffs.

I loved Lehky.
Barron, being a former 1st in itself. Has played very solid depth hockey and has made massive strides since last year and looks like he could prove to be a piece of the future on a deep future Habs D.
We also got a 2nd.

Lehky on Montreal would be wasted value, for no reason. It seems to be a good trade for both teams at this moment. I fully dont understand and especially dont understand the hate about this trade.

Respect you defending yourself though (not sarcastic)

 

[Scintillating10]

Barron such a good skater with decent size and hands with experience he could be another Matheson. Usually takes 200-300 NHL games.

 

[Scriptor]

Barron such a good skater with decent size and hands with experience he could be another Matheson. Usually takes 200-300 NHL games.

Barron is a great skater. He's changed my opinion of him in the second half of this season through his play in Montreal.

However, I still think he doesn't play physical enough forms size and that he's a defensive liability when faced with pressure in his own zone.

I also think Harris is a pushover along the boards in his own zone.

Still like both Ds, but there is stuff to work on still, for sure.

Would include Harris in a trade for Dubois.

Would likely let myself get strong-armed into giving up Barron, instead, for Dubois.

I'm not afraid of either becoming a MacDonagh or a Sergchev.

I like Barron as a 3rd pairing RHD and 2nd PP wave specialist, with the upside to move into the top-4 in case of injuries. I see more potential for Mailloux to be an all around top-4 D with some physicality and loads of offense.

In two years, Savard is gone. I still think we need to acquire another young RHD on the trade front, on top of drafting some more candidates over the next two years.

 

[JuJu Mobb]

On pace for 30 points is not bad at all.

 

[EXTRAS]

Any guesses on his production for next year?

 

[KevSkillz4]

Any guesses on his production for next year?

30-35 points will be the ideal production from him next year. In a couple years, I can easily see a 40-45 points d-man every season. He's on pace 30 points this year. I think potential to become a Jeff Petry 2.0, is there. I really like his progression and he can score.

 

[JoelWarlord]

The negativity around Barron this year was really odd to me. He had a good cup of coffee last season after a solid AHL debut, and then was great in Laval to start the year, and looked pretty solid after getting called up. I guess I'm just not really sure what kind of player people expected us to get in return for Lehkonen, or what kind of season people expected from a 21 year old D+3 dman. 15P in 39 games while not looking out of place in the NHL after a great start in Laval seems like a really positive year to me, I struggle to see why his year or the trade would be a negative.

Sure, he was behind the other rookies at camp, so what? Harris is a year and a half older and played four full seasons of college hockey, of course he'll be more polished. Guhle is simply a higher tier of prospect going 9 picks higher in the same draft class, and the ease with which Guhle/Xhekaj adjusted to the NHL as rookies is extremely abnormal, and not a realistic standard to hold other players to.

Teams aren't going to trade a future stud top pair defenceman for Lehkonen. Barron's upside is a good #4 and PP2 option, and given he shoots right handed that's a perfectly good piece to get back for a middle six forward. Lehknonen isn't a player you can build a top 6 line around, and Barron isn't a player you can build a top 4 pairing around. I love Lehkonen but both guys are complimentary pieces who will be great secondary parts of their line/pairing and that seems perfectly fair to me when we also got a 2nd in the deal.

 

[Walrus26]

The negativity around Barron this year was really odd to me. He had a good cup of coffee last season after a solid AHL debut, and then was great in Laval to start the year, and looked pretty solid after getting called up. I guess I'm just not really sure what kind of player people expected us to get in return for Lehkonen, or what kind of season people expected from a 21 year old D+3 dman. 15P in 39 games while not looking out of place in the NHL after a great start in Laval seems like a really positive year to me, I struggle to see why his year or the trade would be a negative.

Sure, he was behind the other rookies at camp, so what? Harris is a year and a half older and played four full seasons of college hockey, of course he'll be more polished. Guhle is simply a higher tier of prospect going 9 picks higher in the same draft class, and the ease with which Guhle/Xhekaj adjusted to the NHL as rookies is extremely abnormal, and not a realistic standard to hold other players to.

Teams aren't going to trade a future stud top pair defenceman for Lehkonen. Barron's upside is a good #4 and PP2 option, and given he shoots right handed that's a perfectly good piece to get back for a middle six forward. Lehknonen isn't a player you can build a top 6 line around, and Barron isn't a player you can build a top 4 pairing around. I love Lehkonen but both guys are complimentary pieces who will be great secondary parts of their line/pairing and that seems perfectly fair to me when we also got a 2nd in the deal.

I thought Barron was a total liability on his first stint "up" at the start of the season. He couldn't think, read or execute at NHL pace and was brutally exposed.

He deserves all due credit for knuckling down when sent down and he looked like a different player second time up, with a new-found confidence to go with the adjustments he'd obviously made.

Chapeau, but he was, in my mind, earning the early-season negativity.

 

[JoelWarlord]

Chapeau, but he was, in my mind, earning the early-season negativity.

For sure, I'm certainly not saying he looked great in camp or early in the season. Overall I just meant...what kind of prospect did people expect us to get for Lehkonen? It's pretty normal and not a giant red flag that a defenceman picked late in the first round who projects as a solid #4 wasn't immediately ready to hit the ground running at 21 y/o as a D+3 player and needed to go back to the AHL. I just found it weird that early season struggles for a player that young was cause for people to immediately declare the trade an absolute fleece.

 

[Walrus26]

For sure, I'm certainly not saying he looked great in camp or early in the season. Overall I just meant...what kind of prospect did people expect us to get for Lehkonen? It's pretty normal and not a giant red flag that a defenceman picked late in the first round who projects as a solid #4 wasn't immediately ready to hit the ground running at 21 y/o as a D+3 player and needed to go back to the AHL. I just found it weird that early season struggles for a player that young was cause for people to immediately declare the trade an absolute fleece.

Fair.

Lehkonen was also due a substantial raise, which we weren't going to pay him for all sorts of good reasons not linked to whether he deserved it or not.

 

[Sorinth]

How many points Barron gets will depend a ton on usage and in particular how healthy everyone will be. He could quite easily be a better player next year and still end up with a worse ppg. So I'm not sure his production next year will be a good measure of what he is/will become, in terms of stat watching his TOI per game will tell us more, especially if we are relatively healthy and those minutes are earned the hard way.

 

[JRichard]

Fair.

Lehkonen was also due a substantial raise, which we weren't going to pay him for all sorts of good reasons not linked to whether he deserved it or not.

What were those good reasons for not resigning him?
He resigned for 4.5. That was too much for the Habs? That cant be it.
Would have been 2nd best scorer with 21 goals 51 pts.

 

[McGuires Corndog]

What were those good reasons for not resigning him?
He resigned for 4.5. That was too much for the Habs? That cant be it.
Would have been 2nd best scorer with 21 goals 51 pts.

There’s no way Lehkonen gets 51 pts on this Habs team.

Maybe had he played with Suzuki and Caufield and everyone was healthy for the year.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

What were those good reasons for not resigning him?
He resigned for 4.5. That was too much for the Habs? That cant be it.
Would have been 2nd best scorer with 21 goals 51 pts.

More like 31 pts. He wouldn't have 20 pp pts playing on the habs.

 

[Captain Mountain]

What were those good reasons for not resigning him?
He resigned for 4.5. That was too much for the Habs? That cant be it.
Would have been 2nd best scorer with 21 goals 51 pts.

I don't think you remember just how precarious Montreal's cap situation was going into last offseason. Remember:

1) The organization didn't know yet that Price was done. They didn't know Byron was done.
2) They still had Petry on the books as well.
3) Even with Weber LTIRetired, they were looking at being OVER the cap even with Lehkonen unsigned.

Trading Lehkonen (and Toffoli) wasn't just about the returns, it was to dig the team out of the awful situation Bergevin left them in. It ensured Montreal wasn't insanely vulnerable to an offersheet for Lehkonen and gave them enough flexibility to have leverage when trading Petry. When Price's injury proved to be too much to return from, it gave them the flexibility to move Weber's contract and get a 1st for taking Monahan.

And to be honest, Barron and a 2nd was/is a pretty good return. Barron was very good in the AHL and he had decent growth in the NHL. And a 2nd is still a 2nd.

And Lehkonen wouldn't be as productive here as he is in Colorado. His 5v5 production is generally the same, its just that he's gone from no PP time, to substantial PP time on a team with lots of weapons.

I'm a big Lehkonen fan and I'm sad to see him go, especially since he's signed to a good contract, but trading him did a lot for the Habs.

 

[Redux91]

The negativity around Barron this year was really odd to me. He had a good cup of coffee last season after a solid AHL debut, and then was great in Laval to start the year, and looked pretty solid after getting called up. I guess I'm just not really sure what kind of player people expected us to get in return for Lehkonen, or what kind of season people expected from a 21 year old D+3 dman. 15P in 39 games while not looking out of place in the NHL after a great start in Laval seems like a really positive year to me, I struggle to see why his year or the trade would be a negative.

Sure, he was behind the other rookies at camp, so what? Harris is a year and a half older and played four full seasons of college hockey, of course he'll be more polished. Guhle is simply a higher tier of prospect going 9 picks higher in the same draft class, and the ease with which Guhle/Xhekaj adjusted to the NHL as rookies is extremely abnormal, and not a realistic standard to hold other players to.

Teams aren't going to trade a future stud top pair defenceman for Lehkonen. Barron's upside is a good #4 and PP2 option, and given he shoots right handed that's a perfectly good piece to get back for a middle six forward. Lehknonen isn't a player you can build a top 6 line around, and Barron isn't a player you can build a top 4 pairing around. I love Lehkonen but both guys are complimentary pieces who will be great secondary parts of their line/pairing and that seems perfectly fair to me when we also got a 2nd in the deal.

Preach
He's developing wonderfully so far honestly
People expect Rasmus Dahlin I get it, we want our guys to be the bestessests, but he is what he is

He "struggled in his own zone" sure, of COURSE he did, skin and bones rookie who is a more offensive minded Defenseman first year in the NHL lol
Hell he may never be "great" in his own zone maybe ever, but the hope is that he compensates that by being good offensively and the real hope is he can make that "great" offensively

I'd also like to take this opportunity to bring up this amazing fact: that while Karlsson did put up an astounding 100 points and even I'm happy for him
He was still however an incredible -26 this season lol, so you take the good with the bad with these guys