Should the Vegas Golden Knights go after Ivan Barbashev?
Why Barbashev would be a good fit
This is where Ivan Barbashev comes in. The 23-year-old is still on the open market despite adding a championship to his resume after being a key cog in the St. Louis Blues team that went from dead last in the NHL to embarking on a magical run and winning the greatest prize in all of sports.
Still with his whole career ahead of him, the forward struggled offensively during his first two-years in the majors, totalling just 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in 83 games, splitting his time between the NHL and in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, before they became the AHL affiliate team of the Knights.
However, Barbashev seemingly came of age in 2018-19 as he exploded offensively, while establishing himself as a key depth player for the Blues. He finished the year with 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists) in 80 games in the NHL, setting career-highs in all three categories in the majors.
What is interesting is that the Russian seemed to hot up after the All-Star break with 12 of his 26 points coming in 33 games following the mid-season festivities, including eight of his 14 goals. He wasn’t as productive in the postseason with just six points (three goals, three assists) in 25 playoff contests, although his value far exceeded his offensive output.
Forming a formidable and bruising bottom-line combination with Oskar Sundqvist and Alexander Steen, Barbashev was a constant on the penalty kill too, racking up over 34 minutes of short-handed ice time, which was good enough to be ranked fourth on the Blues behind Steen, Ryan O’Reilly and Sundqvist.
In addition, Barbashev at 6’0″ and 187 lbs was a human battering ram for St. Louis during the postseason, accumulating a staggering total of 87 hits, which led the entire NHL in the playoffs which is a fascinating nugget in itself especially when you consider that he dished out 86 hits during the entire regular season.
Barbashev also logged an average of 11:31 minutes of ice time per night during the regular season, which jumped to an average of 12:28 per game in the playoffs. He was effective in the faceoff circle, boasting a winning percentage of 48.3 in the postseason and 45.6 in the regular season.
Overall, Barbashev proved his worth as a versatile bottom-six forward who can do it all, providing secondary scoring while excelling in key roles on the penalty kill and in the faceoff circle. A Swiss Army Knife-type player is a valuable commodity in today’s NHL and the No.33 overall pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft would tick a lot of boxes for the Golden Knights in terms of providing much-needed depth.
However, there is one major caveat at play here which we covered briefly earlier on in the article. Firstly, Barbashev had a cap hit of $741,667 last year and the Blues, with $1.9 million in cap space, still haven’t thrashed out a new deal as of yet. That of course makes life difficult for the Knights who have just over $1 million in cap space left with defenseman Jimmy Schuldt still to sign. As a result, and as already mentioned, a move like trading or buying out blueliner Nick Holden would have to be made in order to create the necessary cap space.
Secondly, due to his status as a restricted free agent, the Golden Knights would have to offer sheet Barbashev with his rights still owned by the Blues. If the center were to sign that offer sheet, then St. Louis would have seven days to match that offer or they would be due compensation if Barbashev did indeed agree a deal with Vegas.
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It is a complicated situation and the Golden Knights would more than likely opt to not swim in those murky waters. However, as we said at the top of this piece, this is just us suggesting what we would like to see this deal potentially happen, we aren’t stating that it will and that is important to keep in mind.
However, there is no debating that the Golden Knights need depth and they also need secondary scoring, something they have lacked in each of the last two years. Going out and attempting to lure Ivan Barbashev to Sin City would not only add some depth and offensive production in the bottom six, but it would also give Vegas another physical weapon on the penalty kill.