Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz made a handful of moves leading up to the March 8 NHL trade deadline. But the one move that seemed inevitable for Nashville ended up being the one that didn't happen..
For months, it seemed certain that Tyson Barrie's days in Nashville were numbered. Yet, the deadline has come and gone, and the veteran blueliner is still on the Predators' roster.
Barrie's displeasure with his ice time played out in a very public way back in December when he requested a trade after being healthy scratched for the first time in his 13-year NHL career. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that Predators management had permitted Barrie and his agent to speak with other teams about a possible trade, and The Athletic's Joe Rexrode reported that Barrie had become “somewhat expendable in Nashville,” in part due to the emergence of promising defensive prospect Spencer Stastney with the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals.
A number of potential trade partners emerged for the puck-moving defenseman and pending UFA, whom the Predators acquired last season as part of a trade that sent veteran blueliner Mattias Ekholm to the Edmonton Oilers. Barrie has seven 40-plus point seasons under his belt, including 55 points last season between the Oilers and the Predators. Now a perennial healthy scratch, he has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) while averaging 18:26 of ice time in 35 games with Nashville this season.
Here's what NHL insider Frank Seravalli said about Barrie on Daily Faceoff just hours before the trade deadline:
The Calgary Flames are one of a handful of teams with the potential to trade for Barrie on Friday. He won’t cost much, but he’s looking to play. Barrie has been grinding through a tough year in Nashville. He’s been a healthy scratch for a big chunk of the year and he’s been given permission to seek a trade. Put simply: When he does play, one of the best power play defensemen of his generation isn’t getting much of a look to create and increase his trade value. Barrie’s agent has been working the phones to try and find a fit at the deadline, so far to no avail. The good news for Barrie is he’s incredibly well respected as a locker room influence, one of the most connected players in the game, and every day that passes he gets just a little bit less expensive on the salary cap.
Ultimately, the Predators couldn't get a deal done in time with Calgary - or anyone else, for that matter - but it wasn't for lack of effort.
"I'm going to give a lot of credit to both parties, Tyson and his agent," Trotz said. "They worked the phones hard. I know that because I was getting calls, and I tried to do what I could."
Trotz also acknowledged that the Predators' 10-game point streak (9-0-1), the longest active streak in the NHL, further diminished Barrie's trade value leading up to the deadline. Head coach Andrew Brunette has found consistency with his forward line combinations and defensive pairings during the streak and was hesitant to disrupt the chemistry; unfortunately for Barrie, he was the odd man out.
"He's a real pro, and he's a good hockey player," Trotz said. "But things are working for us right now, and we're not going to do a whole lot there. But I always look at our depth, and we've got not only the 23 guys that we're were flying or traveling with. We also have [depth] on defense. We're really in good shape there."
Trotz mentioned Stastney and Marc Del Gaizo, who have both played NHL minutes this season, as depth pieces in Milwaukee who can be trusted to come in and make an impact at the next level in the event of injuries or other unforeseen circumstances on the Predators' blue line, thereby making Barrie's presence even more superfluous.
Surely, the Predators' hope when they acquired Barrie in the Ekholm trade last season was that he would be a highly-valued trade chip who could be flipped for more assets before he hit free agency. Instead, he fell out of the lineup and saw his trade value plummet, and Nashville will have to let him walk for nothing in the offseason.
Still, Trotz maintained that there is no bad blood between the two parties. He praised Barrie as a solid player and leader with a "next man up" mentality and an overwhelmingly positive presence in Nashville's locker room, and he doesn't expect that to change during the remainder of the season.
"We just talked about it," Trotz said. "Whatever happened and wherever he was after the deadline, he was going to continue to be that great teammate and be ready to go, ready for injury, anything like that - for us or for any other team."
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