DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche selected defenseman Justin Barron with the 25th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft on Tuesday night.
Barron, 18, registered 19 points (4g/15a) in 34 games of a shortened 2019-20 campaign, tops among Mooseheads defensemen. He has skated in one game since the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League began the 2020-21 season on Oct. 2 and is serving as team captain, his first year in that role.
The Avs have a storied history with players who have connections to the Mooseheads, most notably Nathan MacKinnon, Alex Tanguay and J-S Giguere.
The Halifax, Nova Scotia, native has totaled 81 points (15g/66a) in 154 career QMJHL games, all with Halifax. Barron registered a career-best 41 points (9g/32a) during the 2018-19 season and added 13 points (2g/11a) in 23 postseason contests as the Mooseheads fell to eventual President’s Cup champion Rouyn-Noranda in six games. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound blueliner notched 21 points (2g/19a) in 51 games in his first season in 2017-18, earning a spot on the league's All-Rookie Team.
Internationally, Barron represented his country at the 2018 Ivan Hlinka Gretzky Cup, tallying five assists in five games to help Canada capture the gold medal. He notched one point (0g/1a) in six games for Canada Red at the 2017 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge to help his team earn silver.
Barron is the sixth player to be selected by the Avalanche out of the QMJHL in the first round and the fourth since the club moved to Denver. He is the third player Colorado has selected from the Halifax Mooseheads in the first round (MacKinnon in 2013, Tanguay in 1998). Barron was the 16th-rated North American skater in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings for the 2020 draft.
The NHL Draft resumes Wednesday with rounds 2-7 beginning at 9:30 a.m. MT on the NHL Network.
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