BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bowen Byram needed a place to stay.
That’s the part of the in-season, blockbuster trade fans don’t always get to see. When the Sabres sent Casey Mittelstadt to the Avalanche in March for Byram, who was then 22, he didn’t just have to worry about himself. He was uprooting his life with his girlfriend and their two dogs, a golden retriever and a Plott hound, one of which was a puppy at the time. Luckily, he was coming to a place where one of his longtime friends, Dylan Cozens, had been playing for years. And Cozens was happy to have the company at his downtown condo.
“It was a little chaotic at times, but it was fun,” Cozens said. “Added some excitement to the house.”
Byram added some excitement to Buffalo’s lineup, too. He scored in his first Sabres game and then had a two-goal outing in his third game. His smooth skating and offensive instincts stood out right away. But like any young player changing teams, Byram needed time to adjust to new coaching points, a different system and all new teammates. In 18 games with the Sabres at the end of last season, Byram’s on-ice expected goal share at five-on-five was 40 percent, lower than it had ever been in his career.
This season was going to be a chance for Byram to show what he could do. Entering the final season of his contract before becoming a restricted free agent, Byram, his girlfriend and their dogs settled into their own place and started to get comfortable in the community. And now 24 games into the season, Byram is playing on Buffalo’s top defensive pair with captain Rasmus Dahlin. He’s tied for second among NHL defensemen with 13 points at five-on-five, the Sabres have scored 60 percent of the goals with him on the ice at five-on-five and no Buffalo player has been on the ice for more of their even-strength goals.
“I still think Bo has more for sure,” said Sabres forward Peyton Krebs, who has known Byram since he was 8. “He’s shown what he can do and has a lot more to gain, too. When he’s at his best, he’s unbelievable. There’s a reason he went fourth overall. What separates him is just his confidence to make plays. When he’s at his best, he’s demanding the puck every second, he wants the puck. You hear it when you’re on the ice. He’s yelling at you, ‘Yeah, yeah!’ Things like that. His presence with it is what he’s best at. I love seeing that for him.”
This is a much better picture of the player general manager Kevyn Adams hoped he was getting when he traded Mittelstadt, Buffalo’s leading scorer at the time of the deal. Adams viewed Byram as the top-four defenseman for whom he’d long been searching. He urged then-coach Don Granato to put him on the top pair right away. The results were uneven, and Granato eventually moved Byram off that pair. But he’s back there now, and the Sabres have 54 percent of the expected goals at five-on-five when Byram and Dahlin play together. In over 200 minutes at five-on-five, the Sabres have 57 percent of shot attempts and are outscoring teams 10-4 when that pair is on the ice.
The next question the Sabres will have to answer is exactly where Byram fits into the big picture of their plan. It still feels like Byram has more to give, as evidenced by the 43 percent on-ice expected goal share when he’s not playing with Dahlin. His next contract is tricky. Stylistically, he’s not dramatically different from Dahlin and Owen Power, both of whom already have long-term contracts and are ahead of Byram in the pecking order on the power play. On another team, Byram might be getting enough power-play opportunities to boost his value. With Dahlin getting $11 million per season and Power signed for just over $8 million per year, how much is Adams going to be willing to pay Byram?
For his part, Byram has enjoyed playing in Buffalo. He knew he had old friends that would make the locker room transition an easy one, but he’s also enjoying Buffalo for Buffalo’s sake. He’s from a small British Columbia town near the border with Alberta and still lives there in the summertime. He’s found a similar feel in Buffalo.
“I feel like you have that here,” Byram said. “Good blue-collar, hardworking people. On top of that, it’s just really easy living. You go to some places on the road and you’re in traffic all day. I’m lucky to not have to deal with that here. It’s pretty low-key. I really like that about Buffalo. I feel like it fits my lifestyle. I have a lot of good things to say. You never really know what you’re getting into when you go somewhere new, but I’ve loved it here so far to be honest with you.”
Krebs isn’t surprised by how much Byram’s embraced Buffalo, adding, “Us western Canada boys, we don’t really care where we are. We love playing the game. Bo is a humble guy. He doesn’t need much. As long as he’s got his brothers around him, he’s all in.”
Not every player in the league would be all in on playing in Buffalo, either. Particularly one like Byram, who has already won the Stanley Cup and was playing for a winning team in Colorado. No team has been out of the playoffs longer than the Sabres have, and Western New York doesn’t have the glamorous weather or low-income taxes that attract NHL veterans. Given that Adams shipped out Mittelstadt, a player who loved playing for the Sabres and seemed willing to stick around, it was critical he got back a player who would embrace playing for the Sabres.
“He knows what winning feels like and he wants that again,” Cozens said. “He wants so bad for us to be a successful and winning team. He’s helped a lot and shown us what it takes to win. He wants to be part of the solution and help us take the next step.”
When Byram arrived in Buffalo, Krebs told reporters that the defenseman was “the definition of a beauty.” He’s lived up to that, cracking jokes and quickly becoming one of the people in the room whose teammates love being around.
“Colorado definitely lost a gem and we gained one,” Krebs said.
Not much gets to Byram, it seems. The pressure of being a top-five draft pick or one of the pieces of a major trade doesn’t register because he doesn’t live online reading what’s said about him. The only pressure that has crept in at all is what comes with this being a contract year.
“It can be stressful,” Byram said. “People that don’t admit to that or don’t say that are probably lying in my opinion. It’s a big part of your life. It really is our entire lives. Wherever you’re signed, it’s where you’re living, it’s where you’re playing, it’s where your family is coming to visit, it’s where your spouse is living most of the time. I just try to stay present in the moment and enjoy what I’m doing and enjoy the people you’re doing it with.”
On Tuesday, Byram will play his former team for the first time since the trade. When you get drafted in the top five and win the Stanley Cup with that franchise, you don’t think much about playing anywhere else. So that took getting used to for Byram. But now he’s started to picture what it might be like for Buffalo to be the place he stays for a while.
“It’s something I’ve thought about a lot,” Byram said. “At the end of the day, that’s not really up to me in a lot of circumstances. I’m more so focused on playing hockey and playing at my best. Things will take care of themselves. I’m just mostly focused on playing. But at the same, it’s always kind of in your head when you’re on an expiring deal. I love it here and don’t have anything negative to say. We’ll see how things shake out.”
(Photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
