Player Discussion Justin Barron

[yianik]

Barron won't clear waivers so he won't be put on waivers. He is getting playing time like Ylonen did last year. Ylonen did nothing and is gone, Barron is in the same boat but he might not finish the year here if we are through most of the season and somebody else really merits time over him. I agree with the comments here , if he can get the puck out of the D zone efficiently that's half the battle for him..

 

[Tyson]

Barron won't clear waivers so he won't be put on waivers. He is getting playing time like Ylonen did last year. Ylonen did nothing and is gone, Barron is in the same boat but he might not finish the year here if we are through most of the season and somebody else really merits time over him. I agree with the comments here , if he can get the puck out of the D zone efficiently that's half the battle for him..

There are several teams shorthanded on D, two that come to mind are Winnipeg and LA. If Mailloux can elevate his game a bit more then Barron might become expendable.

 

[yianik]

There are several teams shorthanded on D, two that come to mind are Winnipeg and LA. If Mailloux can elevate his game a bit more then Barron might become expendable.

We really have arrived at the point in the rebuild where competition is full on. Two years ago there was enough room for pretty much any decent prospect , but not now on the D. Same is starting to happen on the bottom 6 and will be heavy in next year or two.

 

[26Mats]

His errors in Camp haven't been missed assignments and ever since he started moving the puck quicker in Laval he isn't turning it over nearly as often.
When he does turn it over oftentimes it's out of our zone which is 100 times better than getting hemmed.
Barron is no longer falling all over himself which was an obvious sign of nerves going back a couple of seasons now.
He's definitely becoming more physical and getting credit for it from our staff.

Barron's dilemma with this fan base is simply that many have already made up their minds and will never bring up things he's doing well.
There is much more to like about his game than he'll ever get credit for here.

Yeah that's not Barron's dilemma, it's the dilemma of those posters.

 

[Naslundforever]

I thought he looked way more confident in his zone and moved the puck up ice like he always has which is really well.

I think some people got caught up on a few bad plays and might be a little biased in their evals.

Play him with a tough guy like Struble or future (way down the line once he gets good) Xjekaj.

 

[Rapala]

There are several teams shorthanded on D, two that come to mind are Winnipeg and LA. If Mailloux can elevate his game a bit more then Barron might become expendable.

I doubt Mailloux has anything to do with Barron becoming expendable. I've always seen Logan Mailloux as a second pairing Dman.
It really depend on how you see David Savard long term. I see him as a 7 or 8 as early as next season if he's even here.
I won't be surprised if we give Barron the full two years on his contract if his play continues to trend upwards.
They were never competing for the same role IMO.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Yeah that's not Barron's dilemma, it's the dilemma of those posters.

Agreed although I am not a huge fan as his demeanor is just too passive and fragile for my liking. He does have real upside though and is still quite young for a dman so those who are entirely writing him off are usually doing so because they have some emotional skin in the game due to whichever young dman they have tethered their tribal lust to.

 

[montreal]

Agreed although I am not a huge fan as his demeanor is just too passive and fragile for my liking. He does have real upside though and is still quite young for a dman so those who are entirely writing him off are usually doing so because they have some emotional skin in the game due to whichever young dman they have tethered their tribal lust to.

I don't have any skin in the game, I don't care what he turns into, but if he plays anywhere near like he did when he was sent to Laval, he won't last as his defense was total shit. I don't know if he was sulking (I know that was suggested the 1st time he got sent down in '22-'23) but if was not a good sign that he was as bad defensively as any of Norlinder, Trudeau, Mailloux, who all struggled badly in their own end with turnovers and poor decisions.

 

[Lockin17]

You guy's know that Barron is younger then Wifi, Guhle, Struble, Right ???

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

I don't have any skin in the game, I don't care what he turns into, but if he plays anywhere near like he did when he was sent to Laval, he won't last as his defense was total shit. I don't know if he was sulking (I know that was suggested the 1st time he got sent down in '22-'23) but if was not a good sign that he was as bad defensively as any of Norlinder, Trudeau, Mailloux, who all struggled badly in their own end with turnovers and poor decisions.

Wasn't referring to you with the "skin" comment.

It is tough for any dmen to play well in Laval as MSL's system is entirely dependant on IQ which just happens to be the reason that most AHL players can not make the NHL as the hockey IQ is atrocious and when you combine that with youth/inexperience you end up with a chaotic environment to navigate.

Laval will once again be mirroring MSL's systemthis season and there are predictable growing pains that will improve as the season progresses. I entirely agree with this approach as Marty is proving that you can elevate hockey IQ and in order for young defenders in Laval to be able to assimilate to the main club the will need to be able to make the necessary reads even if it doesn't neccessarily work as well with their lower IQ AHL teammates.

 

[montreal]

Wasn't referring to you with the "skin" comment.

It is tough for any dmen to play well in Laval as MSL's system is entirely dependant on IQ which just happens to be the reason that most AHL players can not make the NHL as the hockey IQ is atrocious and when you combine that with youth/inexperience you end up with a chaotic environment to navigate.

Laval will once again be mirroring MSL's systemthis season and there are predictable growing pains that will improve as the season progresses. I entirely agree with this approach as Marty is proving that you can elevate hockey IQ and in order for young defenders in Laval to be able to assimilate to the main club the will need to be able to make the necessary reads even if it doesn't neccessarily work as well with their lower IQ AHL teammates.

I didn't think you were but it's always good to be clear as I don't care about being right or wrong since that's just silly to me.

I don't think the issue was the system, I just think the names I listed aren't very bright defensively. We'll see this year since different coach but still likely a very young D but Reinbacher and Engstrom I would expect to not make the same poor decisions that the others made last year. It was a small sample size last year but when Struble was in Laval he didn't have any issues with the system, he was one of the only ones that you could count on to be stable back there.

 

[Jaynki]

I didn't think you were but it's always good to be clear as I don't care about being right or wrong since that's just silly to me.

Hopefully you don't care about being wrong because i think you are one of the poster, if not the one who has the lowest hit rate on his calls.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

I didn't think you were but it's always good to be clear as I don't care about being right or wrong since that's just silly to me.

I don't think the issue was the system, I just think the names I listed aren't very bright defensively. We'll see this year since different coach but still likely a very young D but Reinbacher and Engstrom I would expect to not make the same poor decisions that the others made last year. It was a small sample size last year but when Struble was in Laval he didn't have any issues with the system, he was one of the only ones that you could count on to be stable back there.

Struble is such a great skater and absorbs contact so well that the time and space issue had less affect on him than others. I would also argue that spending all of that time in the NCAA is great for aspiring NHL defenders and much better prepares them for the AHL than the CHL does.

I have suggested that Norlinder is a low IQ player for quite a while now as he really needed all of the time and space that was afforded to him in Europe. I agree that Reinbacher should be fine as he has the tools to at least mitigate some of the poor decisions/routes of many of his teammates and Engstrom should be fine as well although he may get hammered a few times more than some might expect.

 

[montreal]

Hopefully you don't care about being wrong because i think you are one of the poster, if not the one who has the lowest hit rate on his calls.

I was the 1st to call out Lefebvre
I was the main poster calling out MB's shit development
I kept being told Poehling, Romanov had more offense but I kept saying I don't see it.
I said rushing KK at 18 was mistake
I kept being told Jordan Harris won't sign with us and will sign with Boston despite how many times i said I heard he had every intention to sign with us. I was told Jake Evans wouldn't sign with us yet i kept saying I heard he would. I was told Struble when he had 1 goal would never get an NHL contract, I said he would. I was told for the previous 2 years that Tuch won't get a contract despite me saying all that time that both Struble and Tuch would get signed and would play in the NHL one day.

People got made when I said Mysak was not a legit prospect because he is small, slow, ave skater and lacks strength

I got shit for ranking Subban over McDongah in juniors

I got shit for saying Beaulieu was repeating his mistakes in Hamilton and was not progressing well, I got shit for saying Tinordi was struggling with consistency in Hamilton and that he was not progressing well. I got shit for ranking Lane Hutson 1st OA in Nov of '22. I got shit for pointing out Mesar's struggles with consistent effort how it's an issue. I got shit for pointing out Reinbacher was struggling with his consistency despite being told that he would start in the NHL this year which I said no way do I see that happening.

Have I been wrong? of course, so me one person that hasn't. Full time paid NHL scouts fail most of the time, why is that? because it's really hard to predict the future. I once got asked if Michael Ryder would make the NHL after the 2nd time he got sent to the ECHL, I said no as the skating/speed I thought would keep him out. I thought for sure Perezhogin, Danny Kristo, Collberg, would all be 2nd line RW's in the NHL. I bought into the Kostitsyn's, really thought both would have been very good NHLers. I thought Josh Brook was much better but even though he almost had a career ending knee injury, he was no where near the player I expected him to be in the AHL. I thought Norlinder was really turning the corner in the 2nd half of the season but then this past year he looked worse.

If you gave your opinion on say 30+ prospects a year for over 20 years, you would end up being wrong a good bit too as it's impossible not to be since the people that get paid to do this stuff as pros are wrong so often.

But if you honestly read my opinions and think I'm the one around here that doesn't know what they are talking about, that isn't the one that is often correcting posters that don't even know simple rules, by all means please skip over my posts and read all the other "well informed" opinions around here.

I'll also add that while I say up front I don't follow the draft much, I said I did not want Wright or Michov or Reinbacher I also would not have traded the 7th OA for Dach and would have kept the pick and taken Nazar. I also said before this summers draft that Demidov was the ONLY player I would consider over Celebrini for 1st OA. We'll see how these opinions turn out. Plus I said Hughes was more impressive in the NCAA then Tkatuck in their draft year.

 

[bcv]

Hopefully you don't care about being wrong because i think you are one of the poster, if not the one who has the lowest hit rate on his calls.

Chill

 

[montreal]

Hopefully you don't care about being wrong because i think you are one of the poster, if not the one who has the lowest hit rate on his calls.

Keep in mind that posts made about posters has always been against the rules as it's off topic, just an FYI... But keep this in mind, even if I did have the worst takes on HF, i've been here every day giving info on prospects for over 20 years, don't ask for much but how the f*** do people have no respect, what the f*** makes you think your opinions are so great when so many on this board don't even know the simple rules like who can be sent down with waivers or not, etc...

So many good posters over the 20 years I've been here left and never came back because of so many toxic assholes on this board.

 

[Jared Dunn]

The Habs didn't really pay a high price for Barron, IMO. They had to get rid of Lehkonen for salary cap reasons, as he was one of the few forwards who was worth something and didn't fit into the long range rebuild. They got Barron and a 2nd round pick in the trade. That's pretty good value, considering Barron was a young, former late 1st round pick.

Kind of disagree with this, feel like he was the one guy who they shipped out who was young enough for there to be an argument for him being in the future plans, especially with how versatile he is

 

[expy]

Kind of disagree with this, feel like he was the one guy who they shipped out who was young enough for there to be an argument for him being in the future plans, especially with how versatile he is

He was shipped out because Bergevin f****d the team so much we couldn't move anyone else due to the terrible contracts they had. Lehkonen fits in more long-term for us than many other players that are still here unfortunately.

 

[the valiant effort]

I’m betting Lehkonen was more than happy to move on as opposed to hanging around for another set of losing seasons

 

[habbubba]

I’m betting Lehkonen was more than happy to move on as opposed to hanging around for another set of losing seasons

Who wouldn't! Off to a contending team in a city that's mellow and superior skiing.

 

[Ezpz]

Who wouldn't! Off to a contending team in a city that's mellow and superior skiing.

I feel like hockey player must be banned from skiing in the off-season with the relatively high chance of knee injuries versus other sports.

 

[overlords]

I feel like hockey player must be banned from skiing in the off-season with the relatively high chance of knee injuries versus other sports.

Laughs in Malakhov

 

[Jaynki]

Keep in mind that posts made about posters has always been against the rules as it's off topic, just an FYI... But keep this in mind, even if I did have the worst takes on HF, i've been here every day giving info on prospects for over 20 years, don't ask for much but how the f*** do people have no respect, what the f*** makes you think your opinions are so great when so many on this board don't even know the simple rules like who can be sent down with waivers or not, etc...

So many good posters over the 20 years I've been here left and never came back because of so many toxic assholes on this board.

Dear @montreal,

I wanted to retaliate for you removing my post and banning me out of the Reinbacher thread.

What is a better way to annoy an HFBoards veteran, even if obviously unfounded, than to go over his hockey takes? We go crazy here on our hot takes and go to war for it. What would be more efficient than that?

Much respect for the great content and info you provide and the time you put in it and HFHabs is way better with you as a big contributor.

Have a great evening.

 

[montreal]

Dear @montreal,

I wanted to retaliate for you removing my post and banning me out of the Reinbacher thread.

What is a better way to annoy an HFBoards veteran, even if obviously unfounded, than to go over his hockey takes? We go crazy here on our hot takes and go to war for it. What would be more efficient than that?

Much respect for the great content and info you provide and the time you put in it and HFHabs is way better with you as a big contributor.

Have a great evening.

what the f*** are you talking about, I didn't ban anyone from the Reinbacher thread, I closed it because it turned into posters attacking another poster which everyone knows is against the rules.

How the f*** does a human being think that's a way to act? Are you 5 years old? Didn't get your way so you attack me personally, someone that's been right way more on site then just about anyone.

 

[HuGort]

If Struble is outplaying him, hard for me to see MSL going with Barron.

But, if management see a certain potential in Barron, and not Struble, maybe they share that with MSL, or they trade Struble.

But there will probably be injuries. And that will be a window for players to make their cases.

Right shot hey, Barron out of options. Buys Barron time to develop