Confirmed with Link: Alexandre Carrier acquired from the Predators in exchange for Justin Barron

[schwang26]

He was traded for Barron. So, yes, worthless.

Top 4 right handed D. “Worthless”. Hmmmm.

 

[habsterr]

Interesting Carrier is still signed for a couple years after this at a pretty high cap hit, wonder what his value on the open market was, probably worthless

A decent 3rd pairing guy with a high cap hit is negative value. Barron had no value.

 

[Goalfield13]

Top 4 right handed D. “Worthless”. Hmmmm.

I was joking. Look at my post below that.

 

[LaP]

That's different though,

Those 3 1st round picks are not specific individual players, they're a sandbox, and yes that value is amazing.

We traded Lekky for a bad Dman, period.

Barron was in his d+2. You should apply for a job in the NHL if you can evaluate a player to be a bust in his d+2 you'd make millions a year cause people working for NHL teams can't do that.

 

[Kennerback]

Probably because no team showed any level of interest in Dipshit

Nashville is in a bind. They won the UFA signing cup this summer, built up a bunch of goodwill yet have been a disaster. They’re probably in a place where they need to shake things up.

 

[salbutera]

Barron sucked many of commented many times on this

KH was not going to get zip for him and if sent down, loose him for zip
good deal KH. Barron did not work out. end of story

Can we comment on some points of what the new dude brings?

I posted my take last night:

Carrier’s ironically the player his new D coach was circa Dallas Stars years - strong PK shot blocker, highly mobile, a bomb of a point shot with strong hockey IQ, who can play 20TOI per game. The anthesis of dipshit.

He’ll help bring stability to the young D corps till Redenbacher & Mailloux are ready - unless Trotz saw something in his game go off the cliff all of a sudden, this should be a solid deal for HuGo (nothing spectacular but solid)

 

[sampollock]

A decent 3rd pairing guy with a high cap hit is negative value. Barron had no value.

looking forward in seeing in a CH jersey

 

[WinterLion]

Pretty good return for Barron. He obviously had some value. He needs more time but I still think he can work out.

 

[LaP]

Top 4 right handed D. “Worthless”. Hmmmm.

Don't think Carrier is a top 4. He's a 3rd pairing guy. One or even two seasons doesn't make a career.

 

[Goalfield13]

A decent 3rd pairing guy with a high cap hit is negative value. Barron had no value.

I have a feeling he is going to play top pair with Guhle 5 on 5, and likely play some good PK minutes as well. He is the best RD we have right now.

 

[MXD]

The guy was voted 10th in Norris voting 2 years ago?

He got some Calder support 3 years ago.

 

[JoelWarlord]

Over summer a good few of us knew from looking at the depth chart, and calmly expressed, that Barron was one of the odd men out if he doesn’t make a significant improvement. People who disagreed insisted that we were impatient (that word again) and Barron had untapped upside.

Is Hughes now impatient and has he squandered Barron’s upside? I don’t suspect we’ll see much criticism allowed against the Habs GM.

I think it made sense to give him (and the overall category of Barron/Mailloux/Reinbacher) a shot to see if any of them could run with it. One got hurt and the other two showed they aren't ready while Hutson completely eliminated the short term need to keep a solid PP2 option around. I don't think it was impatient to trade him after giving him another chance that he squandered, when Hutson has solidified his role, and when it became clear that Savard couldn't be the same kind of stabilizing presence he was last year. Part of why I personally didn't really think Barron would be traded is because I didn't expect us to get a player like Carrier for him and there's no point trading Barron for a 3rd round pick just for the sake of it. Not that Carrier is some superstar or anything, but he's a pretty good vet #4-5ishD and usually teams don't trade those guys away this early in the season.

Regardless the broader point I'm making is that the whole discussion around this Barron/Lehkonen and Kovacevic stuff compared to eg. Harris/Laine + 2nd is extremely overdramatic in my opinion. It's just the HF availability heuristic, Barron is on our TVs making him a frequent topic of discussion on the boards, so this trade/Kovacevic trade are being treated as a bellwether for the team's overall fortunes which I don't think is grounded in reality.

The last thing our blueline needed, with a god given talent like Hutson back there, is another sub 6'/200lb scrub

Hutson and Carrier are the only sub 6'0 defencemen on the team. Carrier is not physical but he's not some fancy puck mover type either, he's a DFD and he'll help Guhle open things up more. Someone brought up Mike Weaver as a style comparable earlier, he won't be physical but I think you'll probably end up liking him. He's going to be a nice fit with Xhekaj next year after Savard leaves.

 

[Rapala]

Carrier was in interview with La Poche Bleu

I wish RDS would drop a couple of clowns and hire Max away from TVA.
The dude is amazing I loved him as a player because he's honest and that also comes out every time I see him on a podcast.
He's also the only person I really like on TVA.

 

[Archijerej]

We had to find someone to replace some of Savard's minutes so there's that.

I guess we can now officially say the Lehkonen trade was a swing and a miss.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I have a feeling he is going to play top pair with Guhle 5 on 5, and likely play some good PK minutes as well. He is the best RD we have right now.

He is. I think he’ll play with Hutson. Guhle will be with Matheson until they can figure that out.

 

[schwang26]

Great move. He’s only 28 so he’ll be around while Mailloux and Reinbacher develop. Both will need more time in the ahl next year imo. It’ll be interesting to see how Struble gets back in now. A healthy Habs team is hard to wrap my head around!

 

[LaP]

A decent 3rd pairing guy with a high cap hit is negative value. Barron had no value.

Decent 3rd pairing guys signed for 3 millions are usually worth a a 2nd round pick or 3rd round pick. We got a 2nd for Gorges and a 3rd for Emelin both sigend at 4 millions. Were they better than Carrier maybe but while i liked both they were overrated by many fans they were playing too much here and did not do much for their new team once traded.

 

[salbutera]

I’m intrigued in watching how Carrier’s mobility game will take under MSL - one would expect it should be a godsend for the player

 

[Andy]

Barron's problem has always been poise. He had great tools and was a good gamble.

You don't know how poise will translate until you actually play nhl games. Barron just never seemed to get comfortable with the nhl speed.

Great skating, good vision, great first passes, but just cannot stay calm enough to make a clean play without fumbling the puck. Just gets overwhelmed with the pace. The same thing with keeping coverage. Opposing forwards pick up the pace a little bit and he starts to lose track.

Maybe its an experience thing he figures out with Nashville, but he just didn't have the processing speed.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Great move. He’s only 28 so he’ll be around while Mailloux and Reinbacher develop. Both will need more time in the ahl next year imo. It’ll be interesting to see how Struble gets back in now. A healthy Habs team is hard to wrap my head around!

But you see my friend

The Habs actually thought they were getting a good player, so the trade was still good even if they thought wrong.

 

[rahad]

Pretty good return for Barron. He obviously had some value. He needs more time but I still think he can work out.

Value? Are you sure Nashville did not want to free up some cap space for another major trade? Barron contract has around 1m vs 3.75m for Carrier.

 

[Kennerback]

A decent 3rd pairing guy with a high cap hit is negative value. Barron had no value.

Maybe negative value on paper, but a legit NHL RD that can play now vs Barron who’s, using generous terms, not ready yet.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Great move. He’s only 28 so he’ll be around while Mailloux and Reinbacher develop. Both will need more time in the ahl next year imo. It’ll be interesting to see how Struble gets back in now. A healthy Habs team is hard to wrap my head around!

Need to move Matheson. That makes it a little easier to sneak Struble into the lineup. I’d hate to lose Struble but I don’t think he’ll be here either. Ghule and Hutson have top two. Then there’s X….

 

[MXD]

Don't think Carrier is a top 4. He's a 3rd pairing guy. One or even two seasons doesn't make a career.

Well, he only has 3 "full" seasons excluding this one (counting as "full" the season he was injured -- full here means "full-time NHL'er"), and he was at worst Nashville's 4th D in terms of TOI in each of them. He was also a Top-4 D in terms of usage this season, and a Top-4 D during his first real "partial" season in 2021.

 

[The Great Weal]

Another lesson here: HuGo is willing to cut their losses if a guy is not showing signs of progress. Better than Bergevin who waited till the very end

To me this seems like he pretty much waited until the end too. Now if he traded Mailloux and Roy this season I would see this lesson, otherwise, Barron for Carrier seems like a classic MB trade. I’m still a fan of the trade.