National Hockey League defenseman Tyson Barrie of Victoria, British Columbia has retired at the age of 34 according to Josh Erickson of prohockeyrumors.com. Last season, Barrie split his time between the NHL and the American Hockey League with the Calgary Flames and Calgary Wranglers. He is the second veteran defenseman within the last couple of weeks to retire after splitting last season in the NHL and AHL. The other was Chad Ruhwedel of San Diego, California, who retired at the age of 35 on August 12 after playing last season with the NHL’s New York Rangers and the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack.
Who did Barrie play for in the NHL?
Barrie spent 14 seasons in the NHL with five NHL teams. He was with the Colorado Avalanche for eight seasons from 2011 to 2019, the Toronto Maple Leafs for one season from 2019 to 2020, the Edmonton Oilers for three seasons from 2020 to 2023, the Nashville Predators for two seasons from 2023 to 2024, and the Calgary Flames from 2024 to 2025.
Never fit in with the Flames
This past season, Barrie found it challenging to stay in the Flames lineup. One challenge for Barrie according to Ryan Pike of Flames Nation was the fact Barrie was a righthand shooting defenseman, and was behind Rasmus Andersson of Malmo, Sweden, Daniil Miromanov of Moscow, Russia, and Brayden Pachal of Estevan, Saskatchewan. It is also interesting that Barrie led the Flames this past season with 41 healthy scratches, cementing the fact that Barrie was not in the right place at the right time.
Underrated
In his prime, you could make the argument that was Barrie was very underrated. I have high praise of Barrie’s overall play being from Western Canada. Barrie’s greatest strength as a defenseman was on the power-play. He did a great job in keeping the puck in the opposing zone.
Two memorable trades
Barrie was involved in two blockbuster deals in his career. The first was from the Colorado Avalanche to the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1, 2019 in a deal that saw Nazem Kadri go to Colorado. The second was from the Edmonton Oilers to the Nashville Predators on February 28, 2023 in a deal that saw Mattias Ekholm go to Edmonton.
Barrie in 2024-25
Barrie had one goal and two assists for three points in 13 games with the Flames. He was a -7 with four penalty minutes, two power-play points, 19 shots on goal, 12 blocked shots, 10 hits, two takeaways, and 11 giveaways.
Barrie’s two takeaways came in Flames wins. The first was in a 3-2 Flames overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens on November 5, 2024, and the second was in a 3-1 Flames win over the Los Angeles Kings on November 11, 2024.
Barrie’s career stats
Barrie had 110 goals and 398 assists for 508 points in 822 games. He was a -82 with 263 penalty minutes, 212 power-play points, four shorthanded points, 21 game-winning goals, 1774 shots on goal, 869 blocked shots, 506 hits, 267 takeaways, and 508 giveaways.
