Understanding his role is the key to his success: Morgan Barron Jets Nation year in review

Morgan Barron is next on my list of players to cover for the Jets Nation year in review series. If this is your first time checking this series out, I’m getting down to the last few players on the Jets 2023-24 roster. Today I’ll be covering Morgan Barron and Nate Schmidt, and tomorrow the series will conclude with one on David Gustafsson and one on other mentionable players from the Jets this season. It’s be fun recapping each player’s season and looking ahead to their 2024-25 seasons, so time to keep it going today starting with Morgan Barron.

Morgan Barron is a former 6th round, 174th overall pick by the New York Rangers in the 2017 NHL entry draft. You may remember the Jets acquiring him in a trade a few years ago which sent former Jet Andrew Copp and a 6th round pick in 2023 to the Rangers for then prospect, Morgan Barron, 2 conditional 2nd round picks and a 5th round pick. 2 years later, Barron just completed his 2nd full season with the Jets. In 80 games, Barron scored 11 goals, a new career high, and added 7 assists for 18 points. Barron unfortunately got a lower-body injury in the Jets 81st game and missed the last regular season game and the 1st round of the playoffs where the Jets were eliminated.

The main idea that I wanted to discuss about Barron’s game is that he is improving when it comes to understanding his role on the ice. As a bottom 6 winger, it’s important to be able to be versatile so that you can play different roles when called upon. Looking back at Barron’s career before the NHL, he played at Cornell University, and despite being a 6th round pick, he’s managed to develop his game into an everyday NHLer. That’s not an easy thing to do, so that deserves some props before even going more into what makes Barron a valuable member of the Jets team.

You may remember the injury that happened the Barron last season. After a big scramble in front of the net, Barron took an accidental skate from former Golden Knights, and now Jets goalie, Laurent Brossoit to his face and he required around 75 stitches in the 1st period. After going to the locker room for those repairs, Barron returned to the game in the 2nd period with a full cage and played the rest of the game. That moment right there shows the toughness this guy has as a “give it your all” kind of a hockey player. He’s a warrior out there, and he’s the type of player that every team needs somewhere on their roster.

Barron has the size at 6’4″, 220 pounds which makes him a physical threat on the ice, and Barron racked up a total of 116 hits this season. I mentioned that Barron is a winger who’s left-handed, but Barron also has the versatility to play all three forward positions, which helped when the Jets needed to shuffle their lines to try out different combinations. The size and versatility of Barron are really what has helped him succeed in his career so far, and at 25 years old he still has room to develop in the years to come.

That brings me Barron’s contract situation. He signed a 2 year, 2.7 million dollar deal with the Jets before this season, meaning he has 1 more year at 1.35 million in 2024-25. Barron will be a restricted free agent at age 26 in 2025, meaning that the Jets will have the ability to control Barron’s next NHL contract. I think that there’s a very solid chance that the Jets will be interested in signing Barron to a longer, 3-5 year deal at 2-3 million per season depending on how next season goes for himself and the team. The high effort level on the ice has always been noticeable for Barron, and I don’t see that changing next season going into his final year of his current contract.

What can you expect from Barron next season? I would say much of what you saw from him this season, which is being that physical bottom 6 winger who’s versatile and works hard every night. Depending on his linemates, I could see Barron having another 10-15 goal season and putting up 25-30 points if he stays healthy. There’s not much to not like about the way Barron plays, and as he continues to develop his game, he’ll become even more consistent with understanding his role. Look for Barron to have another overall efficient season in 2024-25.