Why You Should Not Want Your Team to Sign Cam Barker

Cam Barker has been playing in the NHL for five NHL seasons (six if you count his one game in 2005-06). The entirety of his career has ridden on his being selected third overall in the 2004 draft, behind Alexander Ovechkin and Evegeni Malkin. He "has promise," has "upside," and has "never reached his potential." These are quotes we read when Cam Barker was traded to the Wild at the deadline in 2010. Heck, I'm pretty sure we even wrote some of them here at Hockey Wilderness.

So far, you have been shown that Barker has limited ability offensively and limited ability defensively. While that should be enough alone to understand why Barker is the wrong decision for your team, just as the snake oil guys on TV say, "Wait, there's more."

Barker laid 68 hits in the 2010-11 season, just two more than the known physicality of Zidlicky. He was trusted with just 43 minutes of PK time all season, and did nothing with his 71 minutes of PP time. He has never played more than 70 games, he has just one positive +/- season, and has been (likely) dismissed by two teams already.

These are the statistics. They are there for you to see, and for you to debate their value. However, there are things that are not represented on paper. Things like his positioning, his skating (we compare his skating ability to that of Kobe Bryant), his speed, his emotion, his physicalness, and his ability to clear the crease.

If you follow Mike Russo, any of the writers here at Hockey Wilderness, or really any Wild fan on Twitter, you have read tweets every night wondering what Cam Barker was thinking about. It even spawned a twitter meme this season. His robotic nature on the ice is the stuff of legend here in Saint Paul. 

The folks at Second City Hockey would be more than happy to give you their opinion on Cam Barker, should you wish to venture a visit. In his best season, the folks over there gave him a B, mentioning the exact same liabilities I mentioned above. Poor positioning, poor speed, lack of emotion (they called him "The Accountant"). 

Two SBNation communities are telling you he isn't worth it, even at a minimum contract. The objective media is telling you he isn't worth it. Two NHL General Managers have (or are about to) rid themsleves of him. It makes little sense to this humble writer why anyone wants him at any price.

So, if you want to give a guy his third chance to make it work, so be it. The only reasoning I have seen so far is that he is going to be cheap. There are a great deal of inexpensive defensemen on the market according to Cap Geek. Most of the names available will provide at least two or three of the categories listed above. Cam Barker provides zero. The only thing you get for signing Cam Barker is a former third overall pick.

If you're willing to sign a player based on that, Alexandre Daigle is holding for you on line two.