What if

The only thing I remember for sure is that Roy wanted to get rid of barrie

***to preface; don't ask me for sources since this is just something I did for myself to visualize how things could've played out based on what I've heard from folks with various connections to the hockey world & avs in particular, and only the Zbad+Chabot trade have I seen written about anywhere. So I'm not going to argue or try to prove any of this if you chose not to believe it***

That said; the Barrie talk was always a weird rumor from the national media given that the big changes that Roy wanted...and that Joe veto'ing lead to their ultimate falling out over...had nothing to do with Barrie; as Patrick wanted to add to our blueline and by that time had learned that he couldn't do it with the Beauchemin's of the world. Thus why he targetted a kid like Chabot when shopping Duchene & why he was banging the table for us to pick a blueliner with the Jost pick...with Chychrun & McAvoy being the two I remember being atop his want-list.

But I understand why it was an easy conclusion to jump to for the national media types, given the issues we had with Newport-client ROR, as well as the fact that Roy had pursued Beauchemin heavily...as Sakic had Stuart...so it was easy to run with the "old guys still think game hasn't changed since they played, can't appreciate a new age stud & are scared of an agency that had their way with them with the previous non-1st-round-picked star the avs had had" angle in lieu of having real sources into the Avs braintrust.

It just didn't line up at all with Roy's heavy reliance on Barrie on the ice and (by that point) desire to make our blueline more mobile & skilled...which, I suspect, is why we never heard those rumors from the french canadian press; who did have some genuine sources in Roy's camp while he was still here.