Return of the Barron

For the record, I was high on Barron while he was in the Avs system.

That said, he’ll need waivers next season and will still be fighting for the #6 defenseman spot. I don’t think I’d give up two top 100 picks for him at this stage in his development. Those picks will probably be used for win-now rentals. A prospect swap seems more likely.

MTL won't move him for that little, whether anyone sees him as 1st round pick value or not. He's projecting to be our 3RD for the foreseeable future and we finally have depth on the right side. We would honestly need a 1st to consider moving him, otherwise it just recreates the lack of quality RD's in the system.

It's understandable that Montreal would want to keep him while he's still waiver exempt, but he's clearly been passed on the depth chart by a number of prospects. Mailloux, Reinbacher, Kovacevic, Harris, etc. Not to mention Guhle who plays on the right too, and Savard. It's good to have depth but in 12 months time you'll potentially be losing Barron on waivers, just like Lindström potentially in a few days.

Fair points, I can definitely agree with that. Colorado should be trading picks for win-now solutions, for sure.

Barron would probably take that 3RHD spot fairly easily though, considering that his only competition would be Malinski and Clurman, and and aging Manson.

I think the hope is that Malinski (who also will need waivers next year) will be NHL ready. Assuming Manson is healthy, he’s also an NHL lock. And I’m sure we’ll sign another Jack Johnson-type vet on a cheap deal to PK. So it’s far from a sure-fire thing, as much as I’m down for Barron.

Clurman… lol.