Tyson Barrie, Alex Kerfoot Traded to Maple Leafs; Avs Receive Nazem Kadri, More

The Toronto Maple Leafs have completed a trade with the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Tyson Barrie, forward Alex Kerfoot and a 2020 sixth-round pick, the team announced Monday.

The Avalanche received center Nazem Kadri, defenseman Calle Rosen and a 2020 third-round pick in return.

Kadri's Toronto exit comes after TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported earlier Monday that the Leafs "have had a ton of calls on Kadri the last two-to-three weeks." 

"I don't get the sense they are shopping him," LeBrun added, "more listening to teams. Happy to keep him if nobody forced their hand with a trade they can't refuse."

Barrie and Kerfoot must live in can't-refuse territory. 

The Toronto Star's Bruce Arthur seems to believe the Leafs made the correct choice: 

To Arthur's point about improving the defense, the Leafs averaged 3.04 goals against per game during the  2018-19 regular season. 

Barrie should do well to boost Toronto's defense. He's coming off his best professional season yet, accruing 14 goals, 45 assists, 59 points across 78 regular-season games in addition to one goal, seven assists and eight points in 12 postseason games.

Just prior to Colorado shipping Barrie to Toronto, the Denver Post's Mike Chambers suggested that the Avalanche's solution to addressing their secondary-scoring needs would be to trade the 27-year-old defenseman. 

Colorado's executive vice president of hockey operations and general manager Joe Sakic touched on the organization's belief that this trade aids secondary scoring: 

From an offensive perspective for the Leafs, they maintain similar production while getting younger at center as 28-year-old Kadri and 24-year-old Kerfoot more or less mirrored each other statistically last season. Kadri scored 16 goals and assisted 28 across 73 regular-season games, while Kerfoot scored 15 goals and assisted on 27 across 78 games. 

The Maple Leafs have exited in the first round of the postseason for the last three seasons, while the Avalanche fell in the second round this spring to the San Jose Sharks.