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Darren Dreger was on Edmonton’s TSN 1260 on Tuesday morning:

On if it’s right before arbitration that we could see something happen on the Tyson Barrie trade front:

“Yeah, you could. I don’t know, I feel like – and this isn’t inside information, it’s kind of obvious – I feel like if something was going to get done, it would have been done by now. Now from Colorado’s perspective, maybe you wanted to get through the free agent stage to see what the market was paying quality young d-men. Jacob Trouba hasn’t re-upped in Winnipeg just yet. So it’s going to be interesting.

“I can tell you this much – the Columbus Blue Jackets absolutely hit the home run in signing Seth Jones at the extension they did for the money that they’re paying him. I think this is an extraordinarily fair and accurate deal. But that deal is going to impact Jacob Trouba, and definitely going to impact Tyson Barrie.

“I guess the question that I would ask beyond all of that though is what’s going on in Colorado with its top-end guys? Ryan O’Reilly, there was this back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The offer sheet. They matched. It ends up creating a negative environment, and ultimately, they trade this guy to Buffalo at the draft a year ago. I can assure you of this – if Joe Sakic had the opportunity to take the mulligan or a do-over, he’d do that differently.

“It’s curious to me why they’d be going down a similar path, although no offer sheet yet on Tyson Barrie. But these are quality players. These are world-class players. And Colorado just seems to be in an annual fight with these guys. And I get it, there’s only so many dollars you can spend. But when you’ve got two-thirds of the league that is trying to acquire your player, maybe you sit down and go, ‘Okay, well, maybe this is a guy we need to hold onto.’

“But maybe Barrie doesn’t see it as a great long-term fit either, and that’s where it really gets greasy.”

Source: TSN 1260/ Transcript: Nichols

Dreger: Colorado ‘seems to be in annual fight’ with its top-end players