Quoting: Zmach
I don't see how these stats show bear is stronger offensively or defensively. Bear has 3 points, Barrie has 32. Goals against are near identical. Barrie is outscoring his goals against by 1.
Bear has only played one good game all season and it took him till yesterday. He drag assed the rest of the time. Also look at that defense and tell me who skates the puck out of the zone if Nurse gets swarmed. You are forgetting how terribly bad the defense was at getting the puck out of their own zone even with Klefbom. Mcdavid and Draisaitl can't be skating the length of the ice all game to get the puck to the offensive zone they wont have any juice left to try to catch up or get ahead in games. The fact that edmonton has been able to do what they are doing without the addition of any measurable forwards shows how much of an effect that Barrie has had on the offensive production.
Bear's offensive production has been a bit underwhelming. IMO Bear has looked outstanding for a majority of his last 6 or 7 games. My argument isn't that Bear is better offensively, but that he is much more valuable defensively, and to the teams success overall. Barrie is an amazing talent, but you need to take his offence with a grain of salt:
5v5 points/60
Bear - .47 (.87 last season)
Barrie - 1.62 (1.18 last season)
% of 5v5 TOI with Drai
Bear - 25%
Barrie - 42%
% of 5v5 TOI with McD
Bear - 33%
Barrie - 54%
% of 5v5 TOI with McD and Drai
Bear - 6%
Barrie - 20%
Bear isn't being set up to be an offensive player. Yes, his point totals are surprisingly low but there are many factors at play. He tends to get defensive zone starts with the 3rd/4th line. Barrie plays a majority of his minutes in the offensive zone with Draisaitl and/or McDavid You don't trade a great young defenseman because his point totals are down
We allow the 10th most goals per game, and score the 4th most per game. Barrie has the highest xGA, and 2nd most actual goals against on our team. If he isn't the leading contributor to our goals against problem, I don't know who is. I suppose Nurse could tighten up a bit more but he contributes a lot more to the team overall. We need to let Barrie walk. His offence is easily replaced by Nurse or Bouch. Bouch, Larsson and Bear are miles better defensively than Barrie, those should be our 3 RD moving forward