Re: Rielly and Barrie
The main difference between Barrie and Gardiner, despite the fact that Gardiner is insanely underrated and probably a much better all-around option, is the fact that Barrie is a RH option whereas Gardiner was LH behind Rielly for minutes. With Dermott (LHD) injured and likely to miss a couple months, their top4 to start the year will probably look something like:
Rielly-Ceci
Muzzin-Barrie
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I'd feel a lot better about Muzzin-Barrie than I would about Rielly-Ceci getting huge minutes at 5v5. Once Dermott is back in the fold, I would guess within a month or so he should be in that top4, possibly playing with Rielly, but until that point I would imagine Muzzin-Barrie to be the more heavily used pairing at even strength. At least they should be, as that's a much stronger pair than anything involving Cody Ceci.
Another thing to consider is the price paid to acquire Barrie. He's a pretty strong PP performer, but has limitations in terms of his defensive impact. He's always had negative impacts in terms of Defensive xG and CF; however, he's typically outperformed his offensive xG and CF impacts. While I don't think Rielly is really going to be diminished, I think it would be prudent to assume that Barrie gets at least some opportunity for PP1 minutes - perhaps a 75/25 type split in Rielly's favor. There's also the possibility that the Leafs use 3F-2D setup with Marner-Tavares-Matthews, Barrie-Rielly. This isn't entirely out of the question, as Barrie has legitimate shooting talent and could operate essentially as a F on that unit. I expect they'll get creative to ensure that both Rielly and Barrie see deployment in meaningful PP minutes.
Both guys are going to be pretty successful if I had to guess. Rielly should be drafted right after the Burns/Karlsson/Carlson tier of guys are gone, and Barrie isn't too far behind. I could see Rielly's production taking a slight hit only because he had an individual Shooting% at 9.0 last season when his career average is closer to 5%. Barrie is arguably a more talented shooter, and that could be a skill featured on that top unit. The bottom line, though, is that the Leafs have some more interesting options with Rielly (LH) and Barrie (RH) in the fold, and some different looks are possible.
MounD - Double Threat FHL (18-19 champs)
10-Team Yahoo daily H2H Dynasty
3C, 3LW, 3RW, 6D, 2G, 7Bn (IR)
G, A, +/-, PPP, SHP, SOG, FW, HIT, BLK // W, Sv, GAA, Sv%, SHO
C: Bergeron, Barkov, Aho, Point, Kadri
LW: Marchand, Landeskog, Hertl, Marchessault
RW: Stamkos, Tarasenko, Laine, Palmieri
D: Carlson, Letang, Dumba, Weber, Pietrangelo, Ristolainen, Byfuglien*
G: Bobrovsky, Holtby, Lehner, Greiss-Varlamov
Farm: Turcotte, Cozens, Denisenko, Newhook // Sandin, Jokiharju, Dobson, K'Andre // Shesterkin