What went wrong with Tyson Barrie?

[DRW895]

Did this moment ruined him as potential top dman?

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[Connor McConnor]

Honestly I think he was just never that good. His best years came on bad Colorado teams where he was able to just play free without any care for defence. Those stats then made GMs believe he was a top 4D and he crumbled under those expectations.

I think he could probably “revive” his career if deployed as a bottom pair PP specialist on a bad team (most good teams will already have a 1/2D who is better at PP QB)

 

[Ceremony]

He got traded to Toronto who expected him to fulfil a role he wasn't and couldn't.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

He wasn't ever very good. You have to be able to defend.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Barrie was always a niche player. Tons of offensive talent, but a liability in many situations. It's precisely why Sakic refused to sign him long term when he was putting up tons of points for Colorado. It's why he failed in Toronto and Nashville when they didn't play him in ways to protect him. It's why he was successful in Edmonton when they used him like Colorado did.

Matt Cooke was a jerk, but Barrie has had a long career after that moment.

 

[Super Hans]

A lot of 2nd (or 3rd) generation players have a dad that keeps them humble and grounded, but having a dad like Len Barrie, his game was probably always just to go out there and look cool.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Hes had a pretty successful career so far and will eventually play 1000 NHL games. I dont think a thread really needs to be made of "what went wrong". He is a pure offensive guy who is now 32 years old and not as productive.

Hes gotten to be teammates with McDavid, Matthews and Mackinnon.... Thats something that not many people will ever be able to say

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I don't think Barrie was ever going to be a top pairing guy even before the Cooke incident. His size and defensive play were always going to keep him in the Keith Yandle / Bryan Campbell / Shayne Gostisbehere category.

However that play did rob him of his dynamic skating, which was his main way for generating offence at evens. He was way more of a PP specialist and mediocre-at-best offensively at evens thereafter.

 

[TGWL]

Defense.

 

[Oleksiak]

Never tried to learn how to play defence, and a coach never put their foot down and told him that he will sit in the press box until he stops playing like trash in his own zone.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

What went wrong? More like what went right?

How the hell did his career last as long as it did? Led defensemen in scoring one year and got 0 Norris votes.

 

[The Nuge]

He was arguably a #2/3 at his peak, and pretty much a lock for 40-60 points his whole career. Basically Karlsson lite. There’s nothing wrong with that. Heck, there’s only so many people who can say they lead all dmen in scoring and he’s one of them (in 20/21)

 

[TMLife17]

I hated him more than Lebda/Holl/AnyOtherPlug mostly because we traded Kadri for him and he was what we all knew he was - a soft dman who does nothing for you defensively.

Putrid trade that started the shift to the Leafs being Charmin soft for the better part of a decade.

 

[Bounces R Way]

He has a great shot and used to rush the puck well but I don't think his in zone vision and creativity was ever anything special. Kind of a mediocre passer for being a PPQB. Niche player that had some good years in that role but is always going to be a guy you're looking to replace.

 

[Fantomas]

Nothing wrong with Tyson Barrie. He's a Dman in his 30s who's had a strong career, including a very strong 10-year stretch, and is now regressing.

What went wrong? More like what went right?

Yup, 3rd round pick in 2009. 15 years and more than 500 points later he's still in the league. The guy is a success story and dummies here are trashing him.

 

[AvroArrow]

He was always garbage, the stat watching fans were fooled by his numbers. Guy was always atrocious at defending, soft, very low defensive IQ, but had some offensive skills.

Realistically he's a number 6 D man that should be QBing the powerplay if you don't have a true #1 capable of it, or QBing the second PP. Lots of people who didn't watch enough of him were fooled by looking at point totals vs looking at how he plays the game.

 

[Cup or Bust]

He is only useful if he is used as your top offensive d-man. The same problem happened in Toronto. If he is not used that way, he serves no purpose. Same with Bouchard in Edmonton. He was awful until Barrie was traded and he became the number 1 offensive d-man for Edmonton, which is why I wanted Barrie traded.

 

[Dirty Dan]

He played with Mackinnon, McDavid, Matthew's as his top centers with prime PP time. Otherwise he's an average pp specialist

His best season was Mackinnons breakout year and the shortened year with the Oilers top PP. But they moved on as soon as they could callup someone better (Makar, Bouchard). Now on Nashville he's not doing much since theyhave Josi

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Did this moment ruined him as potential top dman?

He was drafted #64 overall and has more than lived up to it. There are more damaging injuries than this.

 

[Chet Manley]

Most sub-200lbs D-Men need a fantastic hockey mind to excel defensively. If you can't out muscle or out reach forwards than skating, passing(thinking), positioning(thinking) is all you've got and Barrie just isn't the absolute best in the world at all three of those things.

 

[Crosby2010]

I think he put up good numbers offensively when he was on teams that had a superstar. MacKinnon comes to mind, then McDavid. The NHL is filled with defensemen like this who put up good enough offensive numbers that mask their defensive play. I can remember the Leafs trading Kadri for Barrie and I immediately thought that it was a bad move. The Leafs already had Rielly who had a great year on defense, and they lost a lot of sandpaper when Kadri left. There are always those GMs who will sign a guy on defense that can help run a power play and they'll just hope for the best on the other side of the puck.

 

[StreetHawk]

Plenty of players have either put up numbers or played big minutes on bad teams. Once they leave those teams because of money, as they think they are worth the same as a good player putting up those similar numbers on good teams, things change.

It happens. Ben Hutton got 2 years at $2.8 mill per coming off his 2 year elc. He earned like $7.4 mill in Van in 4 years. Factoring his extension with LV which begins next year (2 year deal), in 7 years since leaving Van he will earn around $7 mill.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

He's the modern day Bryan McCabe. Great puck mover but sucks defensively.

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

Unless I missed an injury to him in Nashville I think its just typical aging. He never was the fastest skater so losing a half step would affect him to a large degree. Overall he's had a good NHL career.

 

[joestevens29]

10th overall in total points from draft year of any position.
2nd overall d-man points
20th game played
6th in games played by d-man
40+mil in career earnings,

Not bad for 63rd overall who was deemed undersized and had skating issues as a prospect.