LW Colby Barlow - Owen Sound Attack, OHL (2023, 18th, WPG)

[Atoyot]

Kyle Connor is an elite puck handler at full speed. I don't think Barlow comes close in that regard. Barlow is stronger and more ready for puck battles.

Their ability to beat goalies is similar and what really sets them apart from other players.

Barlow is most effective away from the puck by my view. He's great at finding soft spots and even if he doesn't get a perfect pass he can one time it like it was a perfect pass. He could be an elite complementary player, but I don't get the sense that he'll drive anything by himself. Honestly Barlow probably has a better one timer than Connor right now.

 

[Russian_fanatic]

For those who have seen him in the OHL, is Kyle Connor a fair comparison?

That’s who he reminds me of the most,..

That's kind of a stretch as Colby Barlow plays more of a power game, and Kyle Connor is a perimeter player.

I always envisioned Barlow as a TJ Oshie

 

[Artorius Horus T]

extends his goal streak to 7 games

 

[HuGort]

I remember at u18, he had hip flexor. Is that usual more a problem as they move into NHL

 

[Whileee]

After being slowed by injury earlier this season, Barlow is heating up with 14 goals in his past 10 games.

 

[CrosbyStaalsAndNash]

Coming into tonights game he had 18 goals, 27 points in 19 games since returning from injury.
After tonights game, he's up to 20 goals, 29 points in his last 20 games.

Dreaming of the day he's on a line with Lambert and McGroarty. Lethal mix of skill, size and speed.

 

[Peasy]

Mans been red hot since coming back from injury.

Definitely had a slow start to the season, but he was having some illness stuff with the Jets before going back to the OHL and then obviously missed a decent chunk due to injury. Could help explain the slow start. Been looking more like himself since coming back. 21 points and 14 goals in his last 10.

 

[CrosbyStaalsAndNash]

With Barlow's OHL season done, the Jets have assigned him to the Moose to begin his pro career!
Finished the regular season with 40 goals and 58 points in 50 games as their captain.

Overall he scored 116 goals in his 168 OHL games (0.69g/game)

 

[Scheifele55]

Colby Barlow so far has 0 points in 4 games. As a Jets fan I feel spoiled with how well our 1st round selections have performed leading up to their professional careers. With Colby Barlow something feels off. He has an NHL shot and leadership, however, he hasn't popped off. I hope he turns it around and can reach the 100 point mark to give me some optimism.

 

[HuGort]

Colby Barlow so far has 0 points in 4 games. As a Jets fan I feel spoiled with how well our 1st round selections have performed leading up to their professional careers. With Colby Barlow something feels off. He has an NHL shot and leadership, however, he hasn't popped off. I hope he turns it around and can reach the 100 point mark to give me some optimism.

I was high on him his draft year. Skill was there. Must been something else.

 

[Hinterland]

Colby Barlow so far has 0 points in 4 games. As a Jets fan I feel spoiled with how well our 1st round selections have performed leading up to their professional careers. With Colby Barlow something feels off. He has an NHL shot and leadership, however, he hasn't popped off. I hope he turns it around and can reach the 100 point mark to give me some optimism.

The trade won't help him much either. There would have been better landing spots for Barlow. The Generals are in trouble and it was a dumb trade to make. If they don't get back Ritchie ASAP then they might not even make the playoffs. After seven games they have five points...and they're lucky to have them. Until a few minutes ago, Sennecke had zero points as well.

Generals are a mess and I'm not sure if it can be solved without Ritchie. The Avs are really short staffed this season though...I'm not sure if they're gonna release him...and even if they do, Ritchie is most certainly world juniors bound as well.

 

[dr1234]

I watched him live today and I have no idea what’s going on here. Granted Oshawa was lost unless Senecke created the play himself, but Barlow looked so uninvolved compared to in his draft year; barely recognized him.

 

[lakai17]

The other day he apparently had 11 shots on net. He currently has 24 shots in 5 games. He'll get some bounces sooner than later.

 

[Hinterland]

I watched him live today and I have no idea what’s going on here. Granted Oshawa was lost unless Senecke created the play himself, but Barlow looked so uninvolved compared to in his draft year; barely recognized him.

Breaking down the breakup between the Owen Sound Attack and Colby Barlow

Dale DeGray needed to hear it from Colby Barlow. "I had heard from everyone else, the only person I hadn't heard from was Colby, and I needed to hear from him what he wanted," DeGray said.

www.owensoundsuntimes.com

This kid just has zero motivation left. As fans we may not like to see this but Barlow is only 19 and he's not the first (or the last) to lose motivation playing junior hockey. There are examples every season, especially among kids like Barlow who are too good too early in their junior career. Once you feel like you outplayed the league all you really care about is winning and getting ready for pro hockey.

When Owen Sound made the coaching change and when it became clear they weren't gonna go for it, Barlow lost interest rather quickly. He wants to win. Which is why he didn't report to Owen Sound. Now he's with the Generals, the 2nd last team in OHL standings, 2 points behind Owen Sound. Probably not what he was hoping for when "requesting" a trade. That's basically the the story.

Also, Barlow is a goal scorer, not a two way forward or playmaker. Even if he did have some kind of motivation, I doubt he'd be able to save the Generals on his own. They were outshot 17-50 by Windsor yesterday and that's basically the standard for Oshawa this season. I really feel like they need Ritchie back ASAP to save this season.

 

[VictoriaJetsFan]

As a Jets fan we drafted Barlow as a guy who put his team first and as a guy who would jump in front of a train if it meant it would help his team win. Haven't seen any of that thus far. He bailed on Owen Sound and gets traded to a potentially worse team. He isn't a centre at all as well. I can't see how him playing there helps him at all. He hasn't shown any leadership, just selfishness. His shot is great and he has goal scoring capacity but he is slow and will clearly need extended AHL time to fix that issue. Or maybe he bitches and whines about that too and asks for a trade. I have no idea what he will do, and that's the problem, this high character guy we supposedly have doesn't seem to have a clue as to what he needs to do. Seems like the same thing is happening to Quenton Musty. These guys need to get the fact that most 19 year olds, all of them not named Bedard, Mitchkov or Ritchie need to see further down the road than six inches in front of their own face.

I don't follow the OHL that closely, so maybe I got some things wrong about Owen Sound or maybe Barlow hasn't been as bad as pointless in 4 games. The OHL fans can clear me up.

 

[Hinterland]

As a Jets fan we drafted Barlow as a guy who put his team first and as a guy who would jump in front of a train if it meant it would help his team win. Haven't seen any of that thus far. He bailed on Owen Sound and gets traded to a potentially worse team. He isn't a centre at all as well. I can't see how him playing there helps him at all. He hasn't shown any leadership, just selfishness. His shot is great and he has goal scoring capacity but he is slow and will clearly need extended AHL time to fix that issue. Or maybe he bitches and whines about that too and asks for a trade. I have no idea what he will do, and that's the problem, this high character guy we supposedly have doesn't seem to have a clue as to what he needs to do. Seems like the same thing is happening to Quenton Musty. These guys need to get the fact that most 19 year olds, all of them not named Bedard, Mitchkov or Ritchie need to see further down the road than six inches in front of their own face.

I don't follow the OHL that closely, so maybe I got some things wrong about Owen Sound or maybe Barlow hasn't been as bad as pointless in 4 games. The OHL fans can clear me up.

You're right but I don't think it necessarily has to be too big a deal. Well, it is for Oshawa because they traded six valuable assets for him. I don't think the Jets should be too concerned though.

Again, the kid is 19. It's not uncommon for kids to get bored playing juniors. Some kids at this age are more mature than others. As long as he keeps on working on the important stuff like skating or strength then I'm not too worried about him. The important thing, for the Jets organization as well, is him being ready for camp in 2025 and well prepared to play vs men. To give an example, Brennan Othmann is actually a similar case. Another goal scorer/leadership/heart and soul type of guy. Was Captain in Flint but got bored as f*** playing OHL and kinda forced a trade out of Flint making all sorts of negative headlines. He did win the OHL with the Petes but his regular season play was rather underwhelming as well. However, he did score 21 goals and 49 points as a rookie in the AHL last season.

It's not ideal and Barlow's situation is rather unique in the sense that he got traded to a really bad team...which usually doesn't happen in CHL leagues. In an ideal world Barlow would be more professional despite the situation he's in but I just think it's too early to panic. I didn't watch those games but Barlow did score three points in three games with the Manitoba Moose last season. Small sample size but it does indicate he can be productive if he really wants to be. Again, might be just another guy who got tired of playing vs kids. He's not necessarily a bad prospect, just a prospect lacking motivation and therefore unable to deal with the situation he's in.

 

[PensFan101]

As a Jets fan we drafted Barlow as a guy who put his team first and as a guy who would jump in front of a train if it meant it would help his team win. Haven't seen any of that thus far. He bailed on Owen Sound and gets traded to a potentially worse team. He isn't a centre at all as well. I can't see how him playing there helps him at all. He hasn't shown any leadership, just selfishness. His shot is great and he has goal scoring capacity but he is slow and will clearly need extended AHL time to fix that issue. Or maybe he bitches and whines about that too and asks for a trade. I have no idea what he will do, and that's the problem, this high character guy we supposedly have doesn't seem to have a clue as to what he needs to do. Seems like the same thing is happening to Quenton Musty. These guys need to get the fact that most 19 year olds, all of them not named Bedard, Mitchkov or Ritchie need to see further down the road than six inches in front of their own face.

I don't follow the OHL that closely, so maybe I got some things wrong about Owen Sound or maybe Barlow hasn't been as bad as pointless in 4 games. The OHL fans can clear me up.

A combination of things not falling Barlow's way. The first and most obvious one is he's got 0 goals on 24 shots in four games. His career shooting percentage is like 17% (was 19% last year), so the goals will come and he's had slow starts and dry spells before just like most goal scorers.

Can't speak too much to Oshawa's struggles but missing Cal Ritchie with no timeline for his return changes a lot for them.

As for Barlow, I don't blame him for requesting a trade and wanting to go to a contender (even if it might not work out like he hoped), but he needs a lot of time to cook at this point. He lost a lot of momentum last year to the back injury he had, on top of whatever injuries he had at the end of his draft year versus London and then playing hurt at the U18s. He hasn't had the same lay it all on the line play since largely because it took so long to get to 100%.

When he was healthy last season, he was as advertised though.

The other part is obviously his skating. In a lot of ways, he is reminiscent of Bobby Ryan, who also struggled a lot with skating in junior and needed time in the AHL to improve it. He also seemed to stagnate a bit in his last junior season (largely because Owen Sound was hot garbage) but figured it out in the minors.

 

[HuGort]

As a Jets fan we drafted Barlow as a guy who put his team first and as a guy who would jump in front of a train if it meant it would help his team win. Haven't seen any of that thus far. He bailed on Owen Sound and gets traded to a potentially worse team. He isn't a centre at all as well. I can't see how him playing there helps him at all. He hasn't shown any leadership, just selfishness. His shot is great and he has goal scoring capacity but he is slow and will clearly need extended AHL time to fix that issue. Or maybe he bitches and whines about that too and asks for a trade. I have no idea what he will do, and that's the problem, this high character guy we supposedly have doesn't seem to have a clue as to what he needs to do. Seems like the same thing is happening to Quenton Musty. These guys need to get the fact that most 19 year olds, all of them not named Bedard, Mitchkov or Ritchie need to see further down the road than six inches in front of their own face.

I don't follow the OHL that closely, so maybe I got some things wrong about Owen Sound or maybe Barlow hasn't been as bad as pointless in 4 games. The OHL fans can clear me up.

Sounds like he has some kind of mental illness

 

[MrCreamm]

Gotta think he's happy to have Ritchie back.