Those ‘other ways’ were not only the types of things that Cornell prides itself in, they’re also the types of things that help a player with Barron’s makeup jump to higher levels – winning faceoffs, learning to be an effective penalty-killer, becoming lethal on the power play, and improving consistency on and away from the puck.

It turned out to be a perfect recipe for both the team and the individual. Barron called it a ‘slow progression’ of getting more involved in those areas, but it turned out to be an example of the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

“I had high expectations for myself last year,” Barron said. “I think I remember just training over the summer and really feeling good on the ice. I felt like there was kind of that potential for me to have that big year. I was really excited to get back on campus.”

Barron’s sophomore year quickly evolved into a breakout season. He led the team in scoring with 34 points; he was just the third Cornell forward since 1987 to be named to the All-ECAC Hockey first team; he was named the league’s player of the month in January; and he was even named one of three finalists for ECAC Hockey’s Best Defensive Forward honor. There was more present than just the standard ascension – there was helium.

As Barron’s accolades were starting to pile up by the middle of the season, it became increasingly likely that the New York Rangers would (and eventually did) miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for a second straight year. When a franchise struggles in the present, the positive energy is directed toward the future. The future features plenty of unknown quantities in trades and free agency, but it also has faces with names – its prospects.

Being based just four hours away from Manhattan, Barron got his fair share of the attention, especially for a later-round draft pick. Requests from the New York metro area for Barron-related material ramped up, ranging from team outlets, to MSG broadcasts, to more traditional forms of media and bloggers. At one point, the Rangers sent a crew to Ithaca to produce a day-in-the-life prospect profile video on Barron. It shined a bright light on all of the things that make Barron such a great student-athlete and pro prospect simultaneously.

“To pay money to come to Cornell instead of going on (athletic) scholarship at other schools shows that the kid knows what a Cornell education is going to do for him in the future,” Mike Schafer ’86, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey, said in the profile. “He wanted to combine that excellence in academics with a team where he felt he could get to the NHL and further his career.”

But the increased attention had a side effect of stirring the rumor mill. Amidst Cornell’s run to a second straight Cleary Cup for best regular-season record in ECAC Hockey, another trip to the league’s championship game and a third consecutive at-large berth in the NCAA tournament, whispers were getting louder that Barron would defect early and join the professional ranks. A report even surfaced saying Barron was likely to do so. It was erroneous.