Barrie showed early potential as an offensive presence on the blueline, leading team defencemen with 9 goals, 34 assists, and 43 points.

He was again selected to the Western Conference First All-Star Team and finished as the runner-up to fellow Avalanche draft pick Stefan Elliott in voting for the Bill Hunter Trophy.

As the Monsters' leading offensive defenceman, Barrie was recalled by the Avalanche on January 11, 2013, and made the team's opening night roster for the shortened season.

In his fifth game of the season, a 4–3 shootout victory over the Minnesota Wild on February 14, Barrie registered his first point, an assist, on a goal by Milan Hejduk.

[17] Despite missing the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, Barrie led all Colorado players in average ice-time and also the defence in scoring with 2 goals, 11 assists and 13 points in 32 games.

[citation needed] In the final year of his rookie contract, Barrie opened the 2013–14 season under new Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy.

Playing primarily alongside Nick Holden, Barrie appeared in a career-high 80 games and finished eighth among league defencemen with 53 points.

On reaching 50 points, Barrie became just the fourth defenceman in Avalanche history to achieve the feat, after Sandis Ozoliņš, Rob Blake, and Ray Bourque.

As a restricted free agent, and with the Avalanche unable to initially agree to a contract due to concerns about his defensive play, Barrie elected for salary arbitration under the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

[24] With the Avalanche off to a mediocre start to the season, Barrie continued to lead the offence from the blueline; however, he struggled defensively after he was placed into top-pairing minutes after an injury to top Colorado defenceman Erik Johnson.

[citation needed] In his seventh season with Colorado in the 2017–18, Barrie rebounded with a resurgent Avalanche, establishing himself among the top offensive defencemen in the NHL, achieving a scoring rate second to only Erik Karlsson.

[28] He scored his 200th career NHL point in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 28, 2017, becoming the sixth defenceman in franchise history to reach the milestone.

[30] In returning to the lineup, Barrie continued his scoring pace, and on February 20, 2018, he became the first defenceman in franchise history to record five points in one game, doing so in a 5–4 overtime win against the Vancouver Canucks.

[32] For the sixth consecutive season, Barrie led Colorado's defence and set career-highs with 14 goals, 43 assists and 57 points in 68 games.

[33] Helping the Avalanche qualify for the 2018 playoffs, Barrie recorded four assists in six games in Colorado's first-round defeat to the Nashville Predators.

[43] In the course of the regular season, he achieved notable results running the Oilers' power play, but was faulted by some commentators for his work on the penalty kill.

[44] After the Oilers qualified to the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, Barrie participated in the team's deep run to the Western Conference Final, before they were ousted by the Colorado Avalanche.

On September 10, 2024, he agreed to attend the Calgary Flames training camp for the 2024–25 season, signing an initial professional tryout contract (PTO).

[50] Barrie would win gold with Team Canada in the 2015 IIHF World Championship, along with the Colorado Avalanche teammates Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan O'Reilly.

[51] Following Colorado's failure to qualify for the 2017 playoffs, Barrie was selected to the initial Canada roster for the 2017 IIHF World Championship held in Germany and France.