How about helleson instead of barron?

Ahhh, the voice of reason

Regarding Ranta, you're not wrong in most of your assessment, but I'd stop short of saying that he has an "excellent" two-way game. He does have a two-way motor, but his defensive awareness and general hockey IQ is quite lacking, so I wouldn't say that his two-way game is excellent... yet. The skillset is certainly there for a Kreider-type north-south forward who goes hard to the net and is feisty along the boards with a lot of skill and a great shot, but he needs to learn to use his teammates better and be better positioned in the D zone. This is his first season in the AHL though so there's still plenty of time for him to improve those things. Regarding using him in a trade, Bednar and Sakic saw enough in him to play him in the playoffs last year against Vegas so they clearly rate him very highly within the organization and he wouldn't be considered a throw-away prospect at all. If they were forced to choose one to keep I think they pick Ranta over Kaut due to stylistic fit and upside, even though Kaut probably has more value to other GM's around the league.