I'd rather not see Avs trading Barrie. There, I have jumped from that ship for now. It's true that players that go through arbitration seldom re-sign long term with their old teams but I think Avs will be able to sign him anyway, just pay what he is worth (~7M+ per?).
We need 1-2 truly legit top six forwards before we can even think about competing for the cup, but we have two first round draft picks in 2019 draft in which there are a lot of very good forward options. Those picks, especially Ottawas pick which I believe is going to be top five, should solve our forward situation for the future. Those picks and one top six UFA addition should do the trick.
We need to get better. To get better, we need good players. Makar, Timmins and Meloche are nice, but none of those have yet proven to be NHL players, not to mention top pairing material. They're just potential now (to be fair, I'd be VERY suprised if we didn't get at least one top four guy out of those three). Barrie is a damn good player, with right partner he can play top pairing and at worst he can be superb second pairing guy that can play top pairing if injuries hit. IF we were to trade Barrie I'd look for 1 for 1 swap or trade Barrie+ for an upgrade. Quality for quality - we have enough quantity.