There was no sulking and no complaining from 23 year-old center Morgan Barron when he was sent to the Wolf Pack. It was quite the contrary if you want to compare it to the situation going on the Vitali Kravtsov.
“Of course it’s disappointing,” Barron admitted about being sent down. “I want to be in the NHL as soon as possible just like anyone else. Look at Kevin Rooney, it took him quite awhile compared to first round picks but he kept doing the work and he’s in the lineup every night.”
Barron finished by saying something important that some could view as a parting shot.
“[Rooney] is one of the guys in the dressing room I can look at who did it the right way.”
Morgan Barron gets his chance
Barron, 22, picked up no points in 4 preseason games. He still has plenty of promise and will get a chance tonight on the team’s 4th line in Nashville. In two games for the Wolf Pack, Barron has two goals.
“You know in the back of your mind things can chance but that’s not the most productive way to think about it for me,” Barron said. “I was just trying to get better because there’s things you can work on.”
The Rangers made it clear they want him to play center but he did not beat out Filip Chytil or Kevin Rooney for that position. Sending him down was the right call, and now thanks to Ryan Strome still out on COVID protocol he’ll use his 6-4, 220 lbs frame to play a physical game.
“You get a sense for how the team wants to play,” he said. “Watching the first few games there was an emphasis on getting pucks lows and scoring those grittier goals. To me that was my emphasis down there was to get to the net a little bit more. Coupling that with playing in all situations was the benefits of going to Hartford.”
In his brief 5 game stint with the big club at the end of last year, he scored a goal in 13:41 of average ice time. The sixth round pick from 2017 has earned this opportunity.
Quite the contrast from how Kravtsov has handled things, but then again it may not be fair to compare the situation.
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