Back in November 2020, the Toronto North Stars made an absolutely huge trade with the Winnipeg Aurora. Toronto acquired Adam Barron in exchange for three players and three draft picks - two first round picks and a second round pick in the S57 draft. If you care to take a look back at the trade thread, the reactions speak for themselves. This trade was big, or beeg as the kids are saying. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see just how much Toronto gave up.

Adam Barron is a 2201 TPE defenceman from the S50 draft, which (unsurprisingly) places him at the top of his class. He scored 58 points this past season, and his on-ice performance speaks for himself. The early part of regression will be kind to him, and he can sustain this for several seasons to come.

Daniel Kuster is another S50 d-man, but only has 644 TPE and is now a free agent. The two other players are more notable. Sarah Burke is an S56 draftee with 1031 TPE (good for 11th in the class), and played about 19 minutes per game on the defensive line for Winnipeg in S59. Winger James Kimanje (889 TPE) joined Burke, and played just under 18 minutes per game. The two players combined for 25 points.

It's relatively early to be talking about the draft picks, but we know one of the first rounders (Freyja Hellstrom) has gone inactive at 371 TPE. Forward Dwayne Gretzky and goalie Vincent Mietitore are 11th and 17th in the class respectively, with 817 and 705 TPE.

We won't know for sure until we see Burke, Kimanje, Gretzky and Mietitore play out their careers, but right now it looks like Toronto exchanged players and assets they could afford to lose for a player who is invaluable.

WC = too many (304).