Maple Leafs Facing Perfect Offseason Window to Reunite With Former Blue Liner

It's been a sore spot for the Maple Leafs for a bit now, but their lack of real offense on the blueline in hindering them quite heavily. Morgan Rielly isn't the playmaking maestro fans expect, and he's seemingly allergic to shooting the puck, and besides Oliver Ekman-Larsson; there's not much offense.

Sure, it's a part of Toronto's new-look lineup but the team still needs to facilitate the offense from the backend somewhere, and it's a lot to ask guys like Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe to suddenly adjust how they play in order to try and add a couple extra points.

Instead, they can look to add a few veterans on a potential PTO deal and see what they have to offer, but one name in particular sticks out not only because he may bring some ire if the team were to bring him back; but he's got the resume to back it up.

Look, don't shoot the messenger this is just purely speculation and trying to find a band-aid solution to a cannonball wound, but if Barrie can come in and show that he has the chops still, on a league minimum deal; he could be a solid addition.

For the times Toronto needs to add more offense to the lineup they can bring in Barrie in place of Simon Benoit and give Toronto a double dose of playmaking, and OEL is good enough to handle things in his own end.

Craig Berube also won't just feed him minutes for the sake of it; Barrie will have a specific role and won't earn much past that unless he completely turns heads.

Plus, who do they have on the power play? For what it's worth, it's Rielly, and a bunch of forwards. The team lacks a true power play quarterback, and if Barrie can play of the PP2 unit and focus solely on adding as much value with his playmaking as possible; it's worth taking a shot.

Given that the Maple Leafs need to find some way to inject offense into their lineup now with Mitch Marner gone, adding Barrie as a PTO and audition him would be a great way to see if he can add a bit more of a dynamic to the back end.

He struggled last season after signing with the Calgary Flames, only registering three points in 13 games (1 goal, 2 assists) but had a fairly solid season the year prior with Edmonton and Nashville.

For his time in Toronto, Barrie was pretty unremarkable and only had 39 points in 70 games (5 goals, 34 assists) while being knocked around for his lack of defense.

But with the team struggling to sign anyone to even a fairly reasonable deal, bringing in Barrie for a chance to add some offensive depth in a pretty easy call.

It also might be one of his last hopes of securing an NHL job.