Quoting: dp6154
that's fair he's a likeable talented player and in that case Barbie just walks.
I personally like Barbie more and think Doug does too because he's a good defensive forward that can play center or wing and has put up over 25 points in a season twice over the slightly below average defensive winger who can throw the **** out of his weight around but has never put up even 15 points and only barely put up a 25 point pace once that is Sammy Blais. To me and I assume Armstrong that's worth the extra half mil, especially when you can find what value, however small, you can get for Blais.
If you can find another worthwhile and easy to make happen $600k of space I think Macmac gets moved over Blais and we all win but I think that takes enough gymnastics with the roster for a pwinger who doesn't mean that much that I can't see Doug not just moving Blais (or hell maybe Bortuzzo instead but he also likes Bortuzzo and I'm not sure who replaces him at RD - or LD if you move Faulk back to the right - for the minimum to make him movable since i'm assuming Mikkola has already made the jump)
The thing with Barbashev is his advanced stats are really not good. This season, Barbashev's Goals Above Replacement is -5 (despite him scoring 10+ goals). Wins Above Replacement is -1, versus Blais' 0.3 and 0.1 in those categories (basically neutral). He's a lot of fun to watch, he scores some goals, he's physical and fights people and that's all well and good, but it's not translating to effectiveness anywhere other than the PK (and I question how much of that is really him and how much of that is him playing with Sundqvist). His defensive metrics at even strength are abysmal. So this whole thing that he's "really good defensively" I think is a reputation that has been mistakenly developed.
It's true that Blais can't play center like Barbashev can, but I would say he's actually more versatile because he can play higher up in the lineup than Barbashev, who I think can't really elevate above the fourth line. I would also say Blais has gotten better every year he's been in the league. It's also allocation of resources- you're already paying Sundqvist 2.75 million to be a fourth liner, which is kind of a lot even though that's a fine contract. I don't know if we should really tie up more million+ contracts in the fourth line. Blais, at least, would be a third liner in this scenario, and, since he has more upside, perhaps higher.
That's why looking at straight points can be misleading- it's no good to put up a bunch of points if people also are putting up a bunch of points against you (the royal you) because you actively made it easier for them to do that- which is what the metrics tell us about Barabshev. People look past that though because he scores some goals.
The real solution is that if Pietrangelo stays there is absolutely no reason to have Faulk on this roster and we should do everything we can to move him. We have more effective options for him in the top four on both hands, so it's a third pairing defensman being payed 6.5 million and not contributing to special teams and that is a worse use of cap space than any combination of Barbashev/Blais/MacEachern.