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.