On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Daily Faceoff hockey insider Frank Seravalli joined hosts Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis to discuss which dominoes will fall next in the trade market.
With star Vladimir Tarasenko already dealt to the Rangers, the St. Louis Blues could now field offers for center Ivan Barbashev.
Matt Larkin: Let’s talk trade targets Frank. The highest riser on your board which is coming out today is Ivan Barbashev in St. Louis which makes sense, of course. Doug Armstrong has activated that “seller” switch, so what is the market right now for Barbashev? He is coming off of a really strong season last year but not quite the same player this year.
Frank Seravalli: I think that’s sort of the complicating factor for teams as they try to figure out exactly what they’re getting in Ivan Barbashev. The big issue has been the consistency of his compete level, but I think teams see the 26-goal, 60-point season last year and say “can I pull that out of him again” on a really inexpensive contract and have him for a playoff run, then figure out what to do next with the pending UFA. Last week his agent Dan Milstein very publicly refuted my report saying that Barbashev will not be re-signed in St. Louis. I hold firm on that reporting for the record, Mr. Milstein. I do believe that Barbahsev has been told to expect a trade and I expect that to materialize over these next 21 days. There has been real interest, pretty significant interest. I think the return could be sneaky, there’s an outside chance that Barbashev could fetch a very late first-round pick. There is certainly some interest in Barbashev as get closer to the deadline.
You can watch the entire episode here…
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