Another Oilers Tyson Barrie Trade

I write this at the end of August so it’s the dog days of the offseason. It’s no secret that the Oilers need to create cap space since right now they have just a shade under $300,000 of cap space – and that’s LTIR cap space to boot. Not to mention Ryan Mcleod – our last RFA – remains unsigned at the time of this writing – and rumour has it his next contact will come in at between $1-1.25 million per season. That means the Oilers need to make a trade or two to free up some cap space. They’re also looking for more depth at both forward and D, so they’ll need cap space for that too.

Warren Foegele and Jesse Puljujarvi‘s names have both been tossed around as potential trade targets as cap dumps but let’s be honest – the most interesting name being bandied about to create cap space is Tyson Barrie. Neither Foegele nor Poolparty will net us a lot in trade, but Barrie is another story.

After all, Barrie’s cap hit is the highest of any of the players mentioned, so not only do the Oilers stand to save more cap space by trading Barrie, but they stand to bring the most in trade as well. Foegele and Puljujarvi will get you a middling draft pick or prospect at best at this point, while Barrie will get you much more.

It makes sense from a hockey perspective as well. While Barrie is still a very good puck mover, here in Edmonton his roster spot over time has been usurped by first Cody Ceci and then Evan Bouchard. $4.5 million a season is a lot to pay a guy to play on the third D pairing, even if he’s got a fair cap hit for what he brings and is still very good at what he does.

How realistic is a Barrie trade? Well, word around the water cooler is Barrie doesn’t want to leave Edmonton and Holland wants to hold onto him, so maybe it’s not realistic. But, Holland can’t deny reality – if he wants to re-sign Mcleod and sign more depth he needs cap space for that – and $300K of LTIR cap space just isn’t enough. That’s not even the NHL minimum for a player.

Still, even if it’s not realistic it’s fun to think about. Let’s go over a trade I’ve concocted with the New York Islanders.

To New York Islanders

Tyson Barrie

To Edmonton Oilers

RD Scott Mayfield

2023 1st round pick

This would be by far the biggest trade of the offseason for the Oilers if they do it. After all, the Islanders are a team that finished 23rd in the league in goals for last season so they need all the offence they can get, even if it’s from the blueline.

As it’s constructed right now, the Isles’ D corps are not that great. They’ve got a young Noah Dobson who broke out last season with 13 goals and 51 points in 80 games.

But, Dobson is 22 years old and thus is an unfinished product. He’s also only played 160 games so you don’t know exactly what you have with him yet. He may yet regress or he may have a strong encore season as well. And I wouldn’t count on newcomer and ex-Hab Alexander Romanov bursting out just yet as he’s in the same boat age and experience wise – and his career year with the Habs was 13 points last season.

And the problem is, Dobson’s the best puck mover the Isles have got right now. After him the Isles have their second pairing of Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech, who finished with 21 and 28 points respectively. That’s one heck of a dropoff on your back end. And the prospects for those two are not likely to get better – both are past the age of 25 and both have played over 200 NHL games. Pulock was at one time a 30 point player, but that hasn’t been the case for three seasons now. Pelech, meanwhile, has never been much of an offensive producer – he just had a career year of 28 points. If I were GM Lou Lamoriello, I wouldn’t count on him repeating that.

They need someone who can help bridge that gap and change the makeup of their D corps.

Tyson Barrie can do that for them. He’s 31 and an NHL veteran of 683 NHL games. His defensive play has improved since Dave Manson came on the scene and worked with him one on one a little more, so he’s got that going for him as well. He’s been a PP quarterback for years and has just put up over 40 points the last two seasons running, despite playing half the season on the third pairing. Unlike in Edmonton, he’d instantly slide into their top four, specifically on the second pairing (something he wouldn’t have the opportunity for here in Edmonton except in case of injury). He’d give them a PP quarterback as well if that’s how they want to use him. He could also mentor his extremely raw and young counterparts on the first pairing.

In other words, Barrie is the exact player the Isles badly need right now.

Can they afford him? The Isles are in a better place cap wise than the Oilers are right now, and while they don’t have his entire cap hit wrapped up right now, they can make it work. Factoring in the loss of Mayfield and his $1.45 million from the roster, the Isles would be taking on $3.05 million in cap space. But as it is right now they’ve got just over $2.3 million in cap space, so they have most of that already. They would be a mere $689,963 over the cap. That’s less than the NHL minimum – they could literally send one guy down to the minors and be cap compliant.

Or, it could create a trade opportunity as well – this trade would push Ryan Pulock down to the third pairing, and although he’s expensive at $6.15 million, they could retain 50% of his salary – which would put him much more in the price range of what he produces offensively – trade him in a cap dump, and still save $3.075 million in cap space. They would have to spend a little bit to replace their third pairing guy on the right side (if they chose to go the free agent route), but they’ll have the cap space to do it and there’s a long list of free agents they can pick up for cheap that are still looking for work right now, so it won’t cost a lot to replace Pulock in the lineup. Even if they paid their new bottom pairing guy $2 million, that still leaves them over $1 million in cap space – and there’s a good chance they can pick up someone even cheaper than that.

Well, first of all the Oilers would be saving $3.05 million in vital cap space and would instantly become much more cap compliant. Now they’d have $3.35 million in LTIR cap space instead of a mere $300K. They could instantly re-sign Ryan Mcleod, plus add one or two more depth pieces if they wanted to. Now Ken Holland has options where he didn’t before.

Not to mention he’d be gaining a mid-range first round pick – which he can use in a blockbuster trade or he can keep it and draft an additional first round pick. The scuttlebutt is that the 2023 draft is supposed to be pretty strong, so that’s definitely a good draft to have two first round picks in. I don’t think the Islanders are so bad that the pick would be a lottery pick or anything, but it could be in the 15-20 range depending on how the Isles do next season. I’m guessing the Oilers own first rounder will be somewhere in the 28-32 range in 2023, so that would certainly be better.

What would the Oilers be getting in Mayfield himself?  Well, Mayfield is a guy whose career best in boxcars is 19 points, so it goes without saying that the Oilers would be employing an inferior puck mover in the same position. However, reality hits you hard as the saying goes and it’s safe to say that Barrie is simply a luxury the Oilers cannot afford at this point. When you’re up against the cap, every dollar counts and wasting a guy’s talents by playing him on the third pairing when he’s capable of more and paying him $4.5 million a season to do so is not good asset management.

Mayfield is a physical player with size – he’s 6’5″ and 220 lbs. He finished 13th on the Isles in hits last season with 77, and fifth in blocked shots with 109. I like the idea of a younger Kris Russell who can play as a regular in the third pairing and throw down some hits too. He was also fifth in PIMs on the Islanders last season with 55 – hands up kids how many of you think the Oilers could use a guy with a nasty streak on the D corps? Yeah, me too. He can do special teams too – he’s not much of a PP guy as you’d expect as he only played 0:04 per game on the PP, but is a PK dynamo as he finished second on the Islanders in PK TOI with 2:18 per game on average.

Considering that the Oilers had the #3 PP in the league last season but a PK at #17, I’d say they could use Mayfield on the PK.

Compare all of this with Barrie – Barrie was 24th on the Oilers in hits last season with a mere 27, and although surprisingly he’s pretty good in blocked shots with 73 (fifth on the Oilers last season), Mayfield should be able to make up for that himself. Barrie doesn’t play a physical game, which is why he only finished with 18 PIMs, good for 14th on the Oilers. On special teams he’s the polar opposite of Mayfield – only 23 seconds a game on average on the PK for 20th on the team, while 4th on the team on the PP with 2:51 per game on average.

It’s also worth nothing that Mayfield is two years younger than Barrie, so the Oilers would be getting younger with this move as well.

The beauty of that is Mayfield has played over 300 NHL games, so you know exactly what you’re getting with him.

Oh, and did I mention that Mayfield has finished on the good side of the +/- ledger in three of the last four seasons? He only finished -5 last season but I’m willing to bet Dave Manson can help clean him up as he was well known as the Tyson Barrie whisperer. If he can help a guy who was as sloppy defensively as Barrie, surely he can help Mayfield who doesn’t have as high a hill to climb in that regard. Not to mention Mayfield would be coming to a better team which should instantly help him defensively.

Strictly my opinion, of course, but this would be a good hockey trade for both teams. The Islanders get more puck moving from their blueline, which they sorely need. The Oilers, meanwhile, will definitely lose some puck moving but will gain a player who’s younger, cheaper, and has more tools in the toolbox. The Islanders can take on Barrie’s cap hit while the Oilers get just over $3 million in cap space they really need. They could also use Mayfield’s abilities on the PK.

As far as the loss of points, personally I think between Darnell Nurse, Evan Bouchard, and Philip Broberg should he make the team, I think the Oilers can make up for the loss of Barrie’s offence.

Want your voice heard? Join the Oil On Whyte team!

Write for us!

Granted, Bouchard is just as young as Noah Dobson, so it would be hypocritical of me to say Dobson could slide but Bouchard won’t just because he’s an Oiler. Bouchard could slide just like Dobson, but IMO the smart money is on both players building on the previous seasons they had with their respective teams. I think Nurse has more offence in him, and we’ve already seen what Broberg can do in limited time. With a veteran like Mayfield manning the other side, is it out of the question that Broberg can put up 15-20 points next season? I don’t want to put too much pressure on the kid, but IMO that’s a realistic target.

Besides, the Oilers are already stacked so much at forward that I don’t think they’ll miss Barrie’s offence. We already have guys like Barrie on the roster in Nurse and Bouchard, so we’ve got the puck moving thing down pretty good as far as I’m concerned. If the Oilers want to rise above the rest of the teams in their way on the road to another cup we need to tweak the makeup of the D. Mayfield will bring more physicality, jam, and PK ability to the roster which we need.

Whenever Markus Niemelainen makes the team, he’ll further cement that element on the roster.

Mayfield will be a UFA after next season but it’s not like he’ll demand a huge raise. To me, this is a better use of cap space on the roster.

Remember bottom six failure Kyle Turris? Well, we received word out of TSN that he has retired as a player and joined the Coquitlam Express of the BCHL as an advisor to the GM and player development coach. This comes as no surprise to anyone as Turris has spent most of his last two seasons with Edmonton as a healthy scratch either with the Oilers or the Condors. He’s only played 50 NHL games over the last two seasons where he produced a combined nine – yes NINE – points in those two seasons. As depth increased on the Oilers he was pushed off the roster as tends to happen.

With the amount of superior NHL players still looking for work I can’t blame Turris for seeing the writing on the wall and retiring as a player. It would be hard to get his career going again at the age of 33.

Good luck to him in this next phase of his life.