Tyson Barrie is still a luxury the Edmonton Oilers can’t afford.
When Duncan Keith retired on Friday, rumors began to circulate that the Oilers would seek to keep Barrie at the bottom.
What would that be like? Well, most likely Barrie would stay in the Oilers ’third pairing and top power play unit. Its value comes in its ability to move the disc to 5 × 5 and the quarterback the powerplay.
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There is no denying the offensive advantage he brings to the table, but his defensive play is non-existent in the best days. There are no blows against him, it’s like that and it’s an area he’s always struggled with.
So if the Oilers return it, as well as Brett Kulak, the depth graph is like this:
Nurse – Ceci
Kulak – Bouchard
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Broberg – Barrie
The first two couples seem very strong, but the third couple is what worries me. The Oilers would ask a lot of Broberg, who will be playing his first serious NHL minutes next year, to pair up with a defensive-backed rearguard. For me, it’s a situation where both players are set to fail.
Barrie has two years left to pay him a $ 4.5 million AAV, it’s not a terrible contract by any means, but it’s a lot of money for a one-dimensional 5 × 5 player who blocks Bouchard from the significant minutes of PP1.
That’s why I think the team has yet to look to move Barrie.
The Oilers could opt for the free agent route to find a replacement for Barrie. Names like Jan Rutta, Ilya Lyubushkin, Matt Benning or Nikita Zadorov make sense.
These are his most likely contract projections, with Evolving Hockey:
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- Rutta: three-year success and $ 2.412 billion.
- Lyubushkin: one year, $ 836,700
- Benning – a year. $ 792,000.
- Zadorov: five years, $ 4.255 billion.
Just outside of the screenings, I would target any of the first three and avoid Zadorov at all costs based on that price alone.
Edmonton could use that added boundary space to put together a serious bid for someone like Claude Giroux, who with a three-year deal projects a maximum success of $ 6.466 billion. Meanwhile, Edmonton could add a steady defender for cheap to pair with Broberg.
Zach Laing is the news director and senior columnist for the Nation Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @zjlaingor contacted by email at [email protected]
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