Barkov - I'll Rep

[LeafsFan1967]

Just listening to the Flames post game show, and the guys were raving about Barkov, and brought up the similarities to Kopitar, and also wait until he's 25 years old and how good he'll be.

I realize he's had injury issues, but better luck so far this year (knock on wood), and he's on pace for 79 pts in 81 games.

He played at a 70+ pt pace the 2 seasons previous to this one. Are we looking at a guy who will score a 70-80 pt (maybe more) pace from now on? My hope is it won't just be that pace, but that he'll play 75-80 games per year. I realize there are no guarantees regarding that, but he can always turn a corner with health given his age/nature of the injuries he's had. Apparently he's a beast in regards to how he trains.

Florida has played way more road games (30) vs home (24), and have 2 more road games on trip, so they will close the year with 9 road games in final 26 games, plus I guess they have a pretty soft schedule opponent wise.

Barky has 28 pts in 30 road games, and 25 in 24 at home, and he was just over a ppg at home over the past 2 seasons, and 27 in 35 in 15/16 on the road, and 20 in 31 in 16/17 on the road, so he's shown improvement on the road this year.

My league doesn't have faceoffs, shots, hits, pims, things like that, but I'm loving this guys trajectory. And he's only going to be turning 23 this Sept!

[nickchau2000]

he's a stud. the best thing about him is his consistency. it's not like he's putting up 5 pts one game and none for 2. he should be a keeper on your roster

[LeafsFan1967]

he's a stud. the best thing about him is his consistency. it's not like he's putting up 5 pts one game and none for 2. he should be a keeper on your roster

Oh he is 100 %. I think enough of him that I traded Hall for him. It's not that I think he's better than Hall right now, but I was only going to have Hall for ROS and next season at most (I signed him to 4 when I acquired him awhile ago, but he was down to 2 years left going into this year), and with Barkov I can top him up (so will sign him to 4) after the season. I didn't need to do the deal in season, but the opportunity came up so I decided to do it.

Since the trade, Barkov has 29 fantasy pts in 8 games, and Hall has 40.5 in 10, so basically a 4 fantasy pt difference if you extrapolate out for Barky. He's also 22, so it's nice to have him and Boeser as my young core, and then surround them with Benn, Wheeler and likely Kopitar (could be Patches), depends on what shakes down trade wise, since I'll only be able to keep 1 of those 2. My gut tells me to keep Kopitar, and buy out of Patches 1 year after this (50$), if I can't get anything for him, but if I get a good offer for Kop (ie: a solid pick), then I'll probably move him and bite the bullet and hope Patches bounces back next season. It's too early to tell, but either way, Kop or Patches will just be my 1 yr keeper.

[FrozenInferno]

I got Barkov for a song in our auction draft and later traded for Huberdeau and Yandle. That trio has been solid gold for me, and there's a pretty good chance that when the Panthers score a goal I'll be getting a piece of it.

They often get overlooked because they play in Florida but people have to remember Barkov was a 2nd overall pick and Huberdeau a 3rd. The talent and draft pedigree is there and they are given every opportunity to succeed in the Panthers system. They'll be core keepers on my team for a long time.

[Axeman33]

It's never been a question of skill for Barkov, it's always been about health. As long as he can stay healthy, he's going to be awesome but that's been the issue for him; he cant stay healthy. Nice to see it finally coming together for him this season.

Something else I noticed watching the Panthers game last night, they flashed an interesting stat about Barkov. He averages more TOI per game than any other forward in the NHL (Kopitar was 2nd) so they are definitely riding him this season.

[Bubba55]

It's never been a question of skill for Barkov, it's always been about health. As long as he can stay healthy, he's going to be awesome but that's been the issue for him; he cant stay healthy. Nice to see it finally coming together for him this season.

Something else I noticed watching the Panthers game last night, they flashed an interesting stat about Barkov. He averages more TOI per game than any other forward in the NHL (Kopitar was 2nd) so they are definitely riding him this season.

This for sure.

Being a Barkov owner is frustrating. You know the potential and he delivers at the level....until he goes down. When I check the box scores for the Cats games in the morning I dread I am going to see "and Barkov left the game in the 2nd period and did not return".

I'm not saying this is the case with Barkov, but a lot of young players battle through injuries early in their careers in large part because they are still maturing physically and don't have the strength, flexibility and know how necessary to stay healthy in today's NHL. As they mature, some of these guys leave their injury woes behind. Maybe this is the case with Barkov, hopefully he stays healthy the rest of the way and we get a season which demonstrates his true potential