Is Barrens Blacksmith also Alley Armorsmith?

I was looking through the flavor text of the new cards when I noticed Barrens Blacksmith's flavor text says "Maybe someday you’ll make it to Gadgetzan, kid". I also noticed that Barrens Blacksmith also has the same goggles and gloves that Alley Armorsmith has. COULD IT BE?

If it is intentional, I have to give props to whoever added these references into this set. We got to see the return of characters like Flurgl and Kazakus and also the grown-up versions of Elise's scouts through some of the mercenaries.

I think this will be a cool year for Hearthstone lore!

The hair colour has changed, but the gloves, tongs, goggles etc all match, so yeah, I'd say it's likely.

It makes me wonder though, does that mean the new Kazakus hasn't tried to take over Gadgetzan yet? Was Finja actually from the Barrens all along and maybe only went to Gadgetzan to try to stop Kazakus?

If only Hearthstone lore was more reliable than "here's the story some guy told in the tavern" I might begin some serious HS lore speculation.

Great find! So, I wonder if this places the Barrens before or after Mean Streets? From that one card, we know the Kabal has already been created and is operating in the Barrens. 

Good catch! This leads to some interesting questions about the timeline. Barrens clearly takes place in the past, probably during the Burning Crusade, because it is filled with characters from classic WoW but also features Blood Elves and Draenei. This means that Journey to Un'Goro takes place quite a bit in the past, because there the mercenaries are still young. Because there are orcs, I'd figure that JtUG takes place right after WC3, FitB near the tail end of TBC and Gadgetzan after MoP (because of Pandarian characters like Aya Blackpaw).