Jets mailbag
Murat Ates and Ken Wiebe of The Athletic: (mailbag) The probability of a Mark Scheifele for Aleksander Barkov trade is extremely low.
Jets forward Bryan Little likely wants to keep playing. During a Paul Maurice conference call back in April, he said that it’s possible the Little could be ready to return for the playoffs if all goes well.
For next season, if Little isn’t able to be their No. 2 center, options as of now stand to be Jack Roslovic if he can take the next step or Andrew Copp. The Jets are deep on the wings.
Barrie on his impending free agency
Kristen Shilton of TSN: Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Tyson Barrie is in the final year of his four-year, $22 million contract.
“It’s a weird time to be heading into free agency, that’s for sure,” he said. “We’re still not certain what’s going to play out here for the second half of the season and playoffs, and obviously that will extend into free agency. It’s an odd time, but at this point I think all I’ve got to do is focus on getting ready to play, if we are going to play, and try to take a run with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs. That’s why they brought me in and that’d be pretty spectacular, so hopefully we get a chance to do that.”
Barrie on his next contract and what would make his ideal team.
“It’s got to be the right fit,” Barrie said of his ideal team. “I think it has to be a spot where they obviously are in need of someone like myself and a good team headed in the right direction and a good organization. I think there’s a lot of right organizations that tick those boxes, so it’ll be a process where you sit down, and we’ll just go through everything important to me.”
It’s unlikely that Barrie will be back with the Maple Leafs next season. Things did turn around for him after Mike Babcock was fired, but was his 39 points in 70 games was a drop from 59 points in 78 games in 2018-19.