With new contract signed, Barron looks to build on 2022-23 campaign

WINNIPEG -What a week it's been for Morgan Barron.

Not only did the 24-year-old put pen-to-paper on a new two-year contract (with a $1.35 million average annual value) on Monday, but just a couple hours later it was announced that he'd be teeing it up at the Manitoba Open - the PGA Tour Canada's annual stop in Winnipeg - this August.

"Obviously the first feeling was just happy," said Barron about his new contract. "You can just worry about the hockey part of it and get ready to go for the season. I was pretty confident it would never actually get to arbitration, it was just a matter of filing for it in case it was something we needed to do. I'm happy it got resolved before it, and I think they are from the Jets side as well."

Barron was a restricted free agent and had an arbitration date set for August 2 that won't be necessary anymore. He's known for about a week that his agents and the Jets were getting pretty close on the numbers before they eventually found something in the middle.

Now he's got a few weeks to get his golf game in order for the tournament, which is held at Southwood Golf and Country Club August 24-27, 2023.

He'll be joining a list of Jets players who have also participated, including Mark Scheifele (twice) and Kyle Connor.

"The golf game is alright. I'm really excited about it. It's going to be a good opportunity for me to play some competitive golf," he said. "I'm playing a lot on weekends and playing more than normal. I'm going to start getting some lessons, which I've never done, so I just want to go out there and have a good time - and hopefully not embarrass myself too much."

He's looking forward to gaining even more of an appreciation for professional golfers as he walks alongside them between the ropes. Rewind the clock a few months, though, and it could be argued people around the sporting world gained a huge amount of appreciation for Barron and the way he plays his chosen sport at the professional level.

Of course, it was Game 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights when an unfortunate series of events led to Barron getting cut by a skate blade near his right eye. The wound took over 75 stitches to close up, but the forward was back on the ice as quickly as he could be.

Admiration flowed in from around the sporting world, and Barron is happy to report the wound has been healing up nicely.

"Most of the people I see are impressed with how little of a mark it left - relatively speaking I suppose," said Barron. "It's been good. It feels really good. Other than the way it looks I don't think it's done too much damage. So hopefully we can keep getting rid of the scarring, but overall, no complaints."

When he looks back on his season as a whole, the product of Halifax, Nova Scotia sees career-highs across the board - eight goals, 13 assists, and 21 points. But the number that meant the most to him was 70, which was the number of games he played at the NHL level.

Compare that to the 2021-22 campaign, which saw him start with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL, get called up to play with the New York Rangers for a stint, get reassigned to Hartford, then back to the NHL, traded to the Jets at the trade deadline, then moved to the Jets' affiliate - the Manitoba Moose - for five games before finishing the regular season with Winnipeg.

So after a season like that, it felt good to stay in one spot all season long.

"It felt like I was getting my feet wet all year long and continuing to grow," Barron said. "I feel like my confidence really built as the year went along. So that's something I'm hoping to build on, get more confident and more comfortable as next season rolls on."

A confident Barron is something the Jets are counting on for next season, as he played a key role in shutting down the opposition with Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton. He knows when he gets to camp, the Jets roster will look a bit different after the trade with the Los Angeles Kings that saw Pierre-Luc Dubois exchanged for forwards Gabriel Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari, and Alex Iafallo.

On top of that, Blake Wheeler was signed by Barron's former club, the New York Rangers.

"I think it's an exciting time for the organization for sure. We'll miss Wheels and Dubie a ton, they were a big part of our team last season and the seasons prior," Barron said. "We obviously got a great package for Dubie. It's a lot of good players coming in. It's really going to add to our depth and give us an opportunity to be competitive."

Outside of this past busy week, Barron said his summer highlights included a trip to France shortly after the season ended followed by another week in New York with some friends from his college days.

"Since then I've been back in Nova Scotia, that's predominately where I'll be," Barron said. "I'm really just starting to feel like I'm getting settled and all of a sudden I'm counting down the weeks until we're back in Winnipeg. I'm pretty much just laying low, working on the golf game a little bit, spending some time on the beach and just gearing up because it's coming quickly now."