Colorado Avalanche Should Keep Tyson Barrie

#4 – Offensive defenseman hold their value much longer than other defenseman

The second argument I hear from Avalanche fans for trading Tyson Barrie is “he will never have a higher trade value than now”. Technically, this is true. He’s in the prime of his career at 26 and won’t get any younger.

Offensive defenseman like Barrie, however, hold their value much longer than other defenseman. It comes down to their style of play. I’m not sure if fans have noticed, Barrie doesn’t exactly throw his body around. He doesn’t get hit all that often either (outside of being absolutely drilled by Dustin Byfuglien a couple years ago) and he’s a great, fluid skater.

The P.K. Subban for Shea Weber trade in the 2016 offseason is a good example. It was so lopsided in Nashville’s favor for a few reasons. Yes, Weber is older, but the reason it was determined by most sane people in the hockey community was Weber only has a few more years of top quality defensive play left in his body. P.K. Subban, while he still can play physical, is much more offensive-minded than Weber. Subban will surely play to an older age than Weber purely due to style of play.

Another example of this is Andrei Markov. Markov played with the Montreal Canadiens as one of their best offensive defenseman for the 16 years. After his contract expired last offseason, he was attempting to get a deal done with the Canadiens at 6 million dollars a season for two years. He’s 39 years old.

Markov was probably high-balling Canadiens’ management and didn’t really expect to get a contract at that price, but he probably could have gotten a contract for around 2.5 to 3 million. The point here is Markov was still an effective offensive threat from the back end in his late 30’s.

Next: Could the Avs Trade Soderberg to Pittsburgh?

Tyson Barrie’s trade value is certainly high now, but it’s not going to drop off a cliff for a long time and it may not even make a drop of any significance for the next few years. If there is a point in a few years where Tyson can be included in a big trade, he should still add a great deal of value.