Deep in the heart of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley lays a factory producing some of the finest exports picked through each year.

The factory doesn't produce some of the regular taste-bud favourites like fresh fruit or wine, but each year hundreds flock to Kelowna, B.C. and are nevertheless salivating on their way out of town. The factory, known in layman's terms as the Kelowna Rockets, has the reputation to stand behind their exports of talented defencemen.

From Josh Gorges to Shea Weber and most recently Luke Schenn, the Kelowna factory is in constant motion, with the departing veterans passing on wisdom to the next generation.

"There always seems to be (a defenceman) that's ready to leave and move on to bigger and better things and then there's another young guy coming along," Rockets head coach Ryan Huska said.

This year's top export is the undersized, yet talented, Tyson Barrie. Son of former NHLer and part-owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Len Barrie, Tyson Barrie may as well be a kid in a candy store.

Upon his arrival last season as a 16-year-old, Barrie got the plum defensive pairing with Schenn, the fifth overall pick last summer. While Barrie still speaks with Schenn, who stuck with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a rookie this season, he is joined this season by another first round pick as his defensive partner in Tyler Myers.

Chosen 12th overall by the Buffalo Sabres last summer, Myers takes over for the departed Schenn on the team's top pair alongside Barrie.

The duo might as well be dubbed the "Odd Couple." Barrie, who stands 5-foot-9, is nearly a foot shorter than the 6-foot-6 Myers. It's for that reason Barrie doesn't like standing next to his partner on the blue line during the singing of the national anthem.

"My grandma always tells me - she's at all the games - she's like, 'You got to stop standing next to him. He makes you look like a shrimp,'" Barrie said. "I try to get away from him but he always follows me."

"You get the odd chuckle when you see them standing next to each other during the national anthem with Tyler being as big as he is," Huska added.

Just as their size would indicate, the two are near polar opposites on the ice. Barrie is the prototypical power-play quarterback with a silky-smooth skating stride and speed one might expect from a player his size.

Myers is more of a shutdown defender who uses his long reach and size, yet has unbelievable skating ability and a penchant for rushing the puck up the ice. It's a style that complements each other's games very well.

"I think that we work well together and I think the coaches obviously see that because they keep us together," Barrie said.

As a talented puck-rushing defenceman, Barrie has been stereotyped and critiqued about his play defensively. His defensive zone coverage has improved to the point where his coach is comfortable placing him on the ice in key situations against forwards much older, not to mention bigger, than him.

"People like to say that's the knock on him but they often forget he's paired with Tyler Myers this year and they always play against the other team's top line," Huska said. "I don't think you can put a defensive liability on the ice in those situations.

"I think he's done a very good job of trying to change that stereotype that people have of him."

Often lumped into the stereotype is Barrie's size. While he might not grow much more than his 5-foot-9, 165 pound frame, Myers has always been impressed by Barrie's strength.

"I've heard that criticism towards him but he's handled his size very well and it doesn't seem to affect him on the ice," Myers said. "He's a lot stronger than you might think he is."

One of the reasons Barrie has spent ample time in the gym adding strength is due to his father's influence. The elder Barrie coached his son through minor hockey in Victoria, B.C., often pushing Tyson harder to reach for the next step.

"Growing up he never worked out or anything until he got to the NHL and nowadays it's a 12-month thing," Tyson said. "You have to be doing it. If you're not doing it, someone else is going to be."

Barrie's childhood winters were spent with his father, going in NHL locker rooms, meeting NHL stars and receiving the on-ice tutelage from his father. As such, his passport isn't short of stamps, as he put it: "I lived everywhere from Germany to Florida and California."

As the NHL draft approaches this summer, there's one place Barrie doesn't want to end up: in Tampa Bay on his father's team.

"I told him not to draft me because I don't think I'd ever hear the end of it," Barrie said. "If I end up in Tampa one day I wouldn't be against it but for the moment I think that I'd like to get drafted by a different team and do it on my own before I go there."

Barrie is being touted a second or possible late first round pick in the draft this summer. Having seen his former defensive partner make the jump to the NHL so quickly, Barrie hopes to soon follow in Schenn's footsteps.

"That's probably the weirdest part is to see how close the NHL actually is," he said. "I hope one day I can be in the same boat as (Schenn) and play in the NHL."

Until then, NHL scouts will continue flocking to the Okanagan Valley, watching the Rockets' next highly-touted defenceman in a long line of talented exports.