Player Discussion Justin Barron

[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

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

Barron's not perfect, but he looks improved to me.

 

[Habs]

darn, I'm the only one that thinks he's as lame as ever? Cmon, agree with me and I'll buy you a beer

 

[DAChampion]

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.

In my opinion, you are the highest value poster on HF boards Habs. You earn that rank both from high quality posts as well as providing them in good quantity. You are among ten or so posters here with an exceptional eye for the game, and of those, you probably watch the most games, the greatest diversity of games, and put in the effort explaining what you see, making videos, etc. The knowledge you display is that of somebody intelligent who has invested significant effort over a large and continuous period of time.

The poster that criticized you? I'm going to be honest, I don't even remember if most of his posts are good or bad.

So, what did you think of Barron's camp? Or maybe you wrote that a few pages ago and I missed it.

 

[26Mats]

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

Barron is 2 months older than Guhle and 2 months younger than Struble. Those 3 are pretty close in age.

Xhekaj is 7 months older than Struble, 9 months older than Barron, and 11 months older than Guhle.

 

[Bobby Holik agent]

darn, I'm the only one that thinks he's as lame as ever?

Yes.

 

[Habs]

Yes.

It's because you didn't want a beer, you wanted a wildberry cooler

 

[Habssince89]

He's lucky he's a righty, but honestly I'm not ready to give up on him at all. Development into a decent Dman is still a win. What I like about him is his best attributes score goals, the most important thing. As long as he can be a net positive then he's an asset. I think he'll be dealt and get a decent return.

 

[Intangir]

He's been better this preseason than he was last year, for sure.

Did he play perfectly? No, not even close to it.

But neither did any of the D we've used on our pairings, so it kind of becomes a numbers game at this point.

Matheson and Savard are our only vets, and so they get a pass. Guhle is out with appendix surgery, but he's better than Barron for sure. Hutson has also shown better than Barron this preseason so he will deservedly play over him to start the year.

Those are 4 guys I'd say are very clearly ahead of Barron at this point.

Then we come to Xhekaj, Struble, Mailloux, and things get a lot murkier as to who is more deserving, without even getting into the whole waivers conundrum.

From what I've seen in this preseason, I'd say that Struble has been overall ever-so-slightly more solid than Barron and brought more grit, though I also thought that Barron had the better flashes of the two (although with a more inconsistent defensive game but that isn't anything new).

Xhekaj serves a very specific purpose on this team given his toughness, and how he manages to break-up cycles when board battles come his way. But he's been I'd say the worse of the two defensively overall this preseason, and also worse for transition/puck-possession, has taken some very ill-timed penalties at times, and gotten again a bit exposed as far as his skating and reaction to speed go.

And I also thought Mailloux, though he still showed very well, did not play as well as Barron in his games so far. His first game, with better offensive deployment, I thought he did marginally better than Barron's first. But his second game was in my opinion much, much weaker than Barron's second, with a handful of mis-timed plays, too much aggressiveness on his pinches and whatnot.

But then you add in how little pro experience Mailloux has, how much he still has to gain by being sent to the AHL, and the decision to send him down should in my opinion not be a hard one.

As for what I think of Barron himself, well, I actually like what I've seen so far as far as his progression goes. And I still think he has a lot of untapped potential, top 4 potential a bit like Petry.

But if he does not start showing more consistency, I think he won't realize that potential with us unfortunately given Mailloux, Reinbacher, and others who are also pushing.

 

[yianik]

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.

Didn't a bunch of vets " petition " Marty about problems playing his man to man game and Marty agreed to use a more zone defensive system ? Thought I read something about that.

 

[morhilane]

Didn't a bunch of vets " petition " Marty about problems playing his man to man game and Marty agreed to use a more zone defensive system ? Thought I read something about that.

They did and MSL has changed it. You can tell who has been watching pre-season games just based on their Habs dzone play comment this pre-season.

 

[BLONG7]

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.

I certainly appreciate your posts, and insight. This board is a better board, with you posting no doubt about it......keep up the great work!!