Tyson Barrie is not worried that the world seems to be shifting beneath his skates.

The 28-year-old defenceman, who has had an up-and-down year since joining the Maple Leafs in an off-season trade, skated with Martin Marincin at practice Wednesday. He was partnered with Rasmus Sandin the night before in a 5-2 loss in Pittsburgh. Two days before that, he skated with Travis Dermott in the Leafs’ loss in Buffalo.

Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe has varied the looks of his second and third pairings, especially over the past two games where the Leafs’ defensive play confounded the coach, the players and everyone who follows the team.

So Barrie has been in a moving dance with his defensive partners. It’s part of a big-picture problem with the Leafs’ blue line, which has faced criticism for months over whether its performance level is too jittery to lead to success in the playoffs.

And while Barrie’s playing partner seems uncertain from day to day, so too does his future with the team. Talk that the Leafs could trade him again, if the right package presents itself, has surfaced. The trading deadline is Monday.

“I honestly don’t pay attention to that stuff,” Barrie said Wednesday. “We’ve got one goal here, and that’s to get into the playoffs. At the end of the day, it’s a business and anything can happen. But it’s not something you pay attention to.”

Barrie’s value to the Leafs remains strong enough to deflect the trade talk into the realm of rumour only. He is second on the team in ice time, behind the injured Morgan Rielly, playing close to 22 minutes a game. And he leads all Toronto defenceman with 156 shots.

With Rielly out well into March or longer, the Leafs would be short on experience if they moved Barrie. Much of his ice time, and presumably the responsibilities that include time on the top power-play unit, would likely be passed on to rookie Rasmus Sandin. And a departure would weaken a defensive corps that is already struggling against the opposition’s forecheck and cycle.

Since Rielly went down with a broken foot 15 games ago, Toronto has allowed 51 goals against, the second-highest total in the NHL over that span.

“You lose a player like Mo (Rielly), it’s very tough. He’s an all-star defenceman,” Barrie said. “But honestly, there’s no excuse to give up (that many goals). I won’t pin it all on one guy … defence is a group effort. You look at the Penguins, they were missing key guys and still got the job done. We can take something from that.”

Barrie opened the season with Rielly as his partner, and that duo had the potential to be one of the top pairings in the NHL in terms of offensive output. But Barrie, who had 14 goals in each of the past two seasons with Colorado, managed just one goal through Nov. 23, when former coach Mike Babcock was fired, and has just four since.

Keefe, at least, appears to have returned Barrie to the more offensive roles he had with the Avalanche. And, with the Leafs struggling, Barrie realizes the help a goal or two would bring. But that gets tougher and tougher at this time of the season with teams locking down neutral- and defensive-zone coverages. Barrie knows the Leafs defence has to do the same or they could jeopardize their playoff chances.

“You never like it when you’re giving up that many goals, that means you’re not doing something right,” Barrie said. “But, as a team, we’re focusing on what Sheldon (Keefe) tells us, we don’t hear that other stuff.”

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The Leafs have obvious needs on defence, particularly a veteran who can handle the physical side of the job, and the current market price seems to be affordable. Five solid defenceman have moved over the past several days, all of them for draft picks: Andy Greene (to the Islanders for a second-round pick and a prospect); Brenden Dillon (to Washington for a second-round pick and a conditional third-rounder); Dylan DeMelo (to Winnipeg for a third-rounder); Marco Scandella (to St. Louis for a second-round pick and a conditional fourth rounder); and Alec Martinez (to Vegas for a second-rounder).

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Among those who might still be available is Chicago’s Erik Gustafsson, who leads the Blackhawks blueliners with six goals and 20 assists and comes with a relatively affordable $1.2-million (U.S.) cap hit.

For Barrie, being caught up in trade talk and being part of an underachieving Leafs defence is more of a challenge than a source of frustration.

“I feel good, and I feel there’s more for me to offer too,” Barrie said. “You have to keep pushing the play offensively. We’ve been having trouble scoring goals a bit, so maybe setting a few up, and putting one in the back of the net myself, would help. I feel like I’m skating well, so just keep pushing.”

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