The NHL regular season begins on Oct. 4 when the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres play in Czechia as part of the NHL Global Series. Fans of the Calgary Flames will have to wait until Oct. 9 for the start of their new campaign; they play an away game against the Pacific Division rival Vancouver Canucks. The franchise is in the middle of a rebuild, with a roster mixed with youth and established pros. After a momentous 2024 NHL Entry Draft, they made only a few minor moves this offseason.
Related: Flames’ 2024 Free Agent Additions & Subtractions
The 2024-25 Flames will be focused on growth and development. The team’s roster is pretty much set heading into camp, when young players will be fighting for spots and others will be vying for better ones. However, one new name has been added to the list of players: 33-year-old defenseman Tyson Barrie. The Flames just signed him to a professional tryout contract (PTO), meaning he will have an opportunity to battle for a roster spot as well. Here’s a look at what the veteran brings to the table and his chances of making the team.
Barrie’s Body of Work
A native of Victoria, BC, Barrie was a third-round pick of the Colorado Avalanche in 2009 after a successful junior career with the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets. He made the Avalanche full-time in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign, skating in 32 contests. He played the next six seasons with the Avs, scoring 75 goals and 307 points through 484 games.
Barrie was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the blockbuster deal for Nazem Kadri, among others, in 2019. He suited up for just one season with the Maple Leafs, putting up 39 points in 70 games. He then signed with the Edmonton Oilers and played with Connor McDavid and co. until 2023, when he was shipped to the Nashville Predators as part of a package deal for fellow defender Mattias Ekholm. Barrie was with the team until his contract expired this offseason.
Barrie is your prototypical offensive defenseman; he is adept at joining the rush for scoring chances and thrives as the point of distribution on the power play. He has scored at least 12 goals and has eclipsed 41 points in a season six times, and 210 of his 505 career points have come on the man advantage.
Unfortunately, having these superior qualities makes for a diminished role in the defensive zone, where Barrie tends to struggle. He frequently gives up pucks, isn’t very physical, and has a career plus-minus rating of minus-75. Age is also not on his side; while he boasts impressive career per-season averages of 11 goals and 51 points, he had just one goal and 14 assists with the Predators last season.
Could Barrie Make the Team
In short, yes. Of course, it will depend on how the other blueliners play in training camp and the preseason and the direction management wants to take the team. But Barrie offers two things the Flames need: power play production and experience. Even though they had one of the league’s best penalty kills, their power play ranked 26th in 2023-24, which isn’t good enough. Only Kadri scored more than 20 points with the extra man, a figure that Barrie has exceeded six times and as recently as 2022-23.
Among defensemen, Mackenzie Weegar did most of his damage at even strength, and Rasmus Andersson had just eight assists despite averaging the most power play ice time (2:20). While Barrie likely couldn’t take the power play from 26th to first singlehandedly, he has been part of many successful units and would make a difference. Over his 13-year career, his average team power play percentage is 23.2, and his team’s success rate has been tenth or better league-wide ten times.
As a veteran of over 800 NHL games, Barrie also has a wealth of experience to share with the team’s younger players. The Flames are the 12th youngest team in the league, with an average age of 29. He would also provide a bit more security on the back end; after Weegar and Andersson, the Flames will roll out a relatively inexperienced bottom four of Daniil Miromanov, Kevin Bahl, Jake Bean, and Brayden Pachal. Barrie could be a more serviceable option to hold down the fort this season until some of the team’s premier defensive prospects are ready. As a righty, he’d likely be battling with Pachal for the sixth spot but could also become the team’s de facto seventh defender and rotate in for games or play full-time should injuries occur.
All in all, a PTO is a low-risk option that is a win-win for NHL teams. They either get a player who plays well enough to earn an affordable NHL contract or one who provides new veteran competition in camp for little to no money. PTOs do not get converted into contracts nearly as often as they used to, but Barrie has a decent chance of doing so. He has plenty of proverbial gas left in the tank and has intangible that the Flames should covet.
