The Colorado Avalanche have offered defenseman Tyson Barrie a long-term contract. Now it’s up to Barrie to accept it, or they go to salary arbitration.
The Colorado Avalanche and offensive defenseman Tyson Barrie are in contract negotiations. On July 1, Barrie becomes a restricted free agent.
Barrie is represented by the same agency that represented center Ryan O’Reilly, though the man meeting with GM Joe Sakic has been Don Meehan, not Pat Morris. As we all know, those negotiations became very contentious and led eventually to O’Reilly’s trade from Colorado.
Is Tyson Barrie heading in the same direction? And is that cause for freak out?
Tyson Barrie Contract
Tyson Barrie is coning off a two-year bridge contract worth $5.2 million total. He’s also coming off his best two years as an offensive defenseman, scoring 53 and 49 points respectively.
Of course, last year was terrible for him defensively, but that’s notoriously hard to quantify. (Finally a legit use for advanced stats, and they fall short.)
In any case, Barrie is likely seeking a raise from the $3.2 million he made last season, though his contract carries a cap hit of $2.6 million. And those are the kinds of distinctions that caused O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche trouble.
How much Barrie is worth is cause for speculation. The team has an internal structure based on Matt Duchene’s $6 million annual, and no player has broken that ceiling, not their Vezina finalist goalie (Semyon Varlamov, $5.9 million) nor their Olympian/All Star defenseman (Erik Johnson, $6 million).
It’s widely speculated that first-overall, Calder Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon will break that ceiling. Not Tyson Barrie.
Indeed, Barrie has been the center of trade rumors for months now. Practically every team wants him — except for teams with truly elite offensive defensemen, such as the Montreal Canadiens and the Nashville Predators.
Joe Sakic met with Tyson Barrie’s agent at the NHL draft last Thursday. According to the Denver Post, Sakic presented Meehan with a “long-term proposal” to take back to the player. My guess is it’s worth in the neighborhood of $5 million annually for the next five to seven years. (Based on what the Colorado Avalanche offered Erik Johnson.)
Sakic has already stated that, if Barrie doesn’t accept the proposal, the two sides are headed to arbitration.
Sakic hasn’t said this, but I will — if Barrie takes the team to arbitration, he may get his payday short-term. But his days with the Colorado Avalanche will be limited. Colorado will have to wait a full year to trade him, but I think we’d see him gone at next season’s NHL draft.
And that’s cause for a little freak out, right?
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For some odd reason, no one is freaking out about Nathan MacKinnon’s contract. He’s also becoming a restricted free agent.
Sakic said in a previous presser that he’s begun preliminary negotiations with MacKinnon, who’s coming off his entry-level contract. The contract carried a $925,000 cap hit, but $3.77 million average annual value.
Sakic has said MacKinnon is the only untradeable player on the Colorado Avalanche. He also seems very sure he can get the contract worked out “by training camp.” Why it would take that long, I don’t know.
I do know that MacKinnon has mentioned he wants a long-term contract. It’s possible the Avalanche want to offer him a bridge deal.In fact, in another Post article, Sakic remarked that it’s the length of the contract that’s “up in the air.”
However, he should be worth a lot more in two years — I don’t know why the Avs would want to risk that. Anyway, Sakic also said MacKinnon “isn’t going anywhere.”
In any case, in addition to MacKinnon and Barrie, the team made qualifying offers to goalie Calvin Pickard, forward Mikhail Grigorenko and defenseman Duncan Siemens.
Though Sakic had mentioned qualifying defenseman Brandon Gormley, that’s not happening after all. What’s more, the Colorado Avalanche are going to buy out defenseman Brad Stuart’s contract.
The team has freed up some cap space by trading Nick Holden and Reto Berra. They’ve also freed up some roster space. Now it’s just a matter of what they choose to do in free agency.
From my perspective — get Nathan MacKinnon done.