I agree. He doesn’t play much center with Vegas and I’m not sure he is what we need right now, unless we are looking for a 3rd line upgrade over Joseph/Tex.
Love Barbie, but he's not a center so wouldn't really fill a need
There were never any reports that Barbie didn't want to sign here, he was moved because we didn't want to sign him for cap purposes, nothing about him as a player.
I thought he wanted to test the market. I’m old though, so the memory may be fading. Either way, you never heard of the two sides sitting down, offers he refused, etc…. He was just gone. And still don’t think he fits a need.
My recollection is that he didn't want to resign with us because we were rebuilding and he wanted chance to win. So we dealt him to Vegas and he won another Cup. And then got big raise. Good on him. Now thar we are better we are I assume more appealing, but as you said, he doesn't fill a need because he's yet another winger.
As others have mentioned, he's been primarily a winger since before we traded him, but if our pro scouts felt he could be a good 2C option I could think of worse choices, especially if the cost to acquire was low. From what I remember, he played a good chunk of his last full season here (career high 60 points) with Tarasenko on the right side, but that worked out because Tarasenko liked having the puck on his stick. I don't recall Barbie being very good at the "transporter" role, but if he was slotted between Holloway and Kyrou he probably wouldn't need to be.
I don't remember him ever saying he didn't want to resign or mention anything about a rebuild, I just remember him wanting to get paid and we weren't willing to do so, so we shopped him at the deadline and then he ended up in the perfect spot.
Army said it in interview after the trade deadline that year, that we had tried to sign him and he wanted chance to win so we dealt him.
That’s kind of what I remembered. I phrased it as him not wanting to sign with us, but probably more accurate that he wanted to be with a contender. Either way, he wasn’t signing here and not sure he would want to come back. And, he’s not a need. As much as I like him as a player, he’s probably not on the radar.
I would expect Karlsson to be moved, but I would think that they would want to keep Hertl to play with Marner and keep Eichel and Stone together.
I highly doubt Armstrong would be leaking contract numbers like this publicly mid-negotiation unless it was a last ditch move to try and find common ground. I don’t like what Guerin did s doing here.
That initial report of it being a mid-20s pick or Forester is so weird. If that's all it takes for Rossi extended, I'd offer 19OA and Texier/Joseph to offset salary? A 1 for 1 for Neighbors or Bolduc?
That would set us back on offense. And unless we are getting Misa, the price would be way too high to get into the top 3-4 picks. That kid is gonna be a stud though.
From an asset value standpoint, I could understand it but where the Blues are at, they need to be building the current roster, not taking away from it to gain another 17/18 yr old.
