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Barker’s descent continues with AHL release

Cam Barker, Brandon Saad, Pierre-Cedric Labrie, Andrew Shaw, Chicago Blackhawks

Cam Barker, Brandon Saad, Pierre-Cedric Labrie, Andrew Shaw, Chicago Blackhawks

AP

Back when the Chicago Blackhawks drafted Cam Barker in 2004, only Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin were taken ahead of him. His story has proven to be starkly different than theirs.

While Ovechkin and Malkin are two of the best players in the league, Barker was recently released from his tryout contract with the Blackhawks’ AHL affiliates, per the Rockford IceHogs’ website.

Barker never established himself as one of the league’s elite, but for a time he did play regularly in the NHL. He had 21 goals and 96 points in 310 career games with Chicago, the Minnesota Wild, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. After splitting the shortened 2013 campaign between the NHL and AHL though, he spent 2013-14 in the KHL.

Now 28 years old, he attempted to stage his North American return at the place it all began: Chicago. He failed to make the team on a tryout contract though and now it looks like there’s no place for him in the organization at all.

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