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He’ll be rewarded 6.5 or 7mil by arbitration would be my guess. He certainly won’t get 8 or 9 mil AAV, especially if he asks for 2 years.

1/2 of the arbitrators are selected by the union and 1/2 are selected by the league. They alternate in getting to choose dates and arbitrators.

So then why hasn’t a trade been made yet? Aside from SJS and Philly, the other teams apparently interested in Byram are playoff teams not looking to subtract from their present roster. Adams wants NHLers and those playoff teams are unlikely to either have the cap space or present pieces to make a deal. I highly doubt Adams has 5 great offers on the table of NHL players and is sitting on his hands for the sake of it. Less actual evidence and more the general threat of one would be my guess.

When the new owner took over he didn’t have a high end roster. He’s doing things the right way to have a successful franchise. Compare that to Terry P. who has presided over a flailing franchise for a full generation? The Utah operation under their new owner is already so much more professionally run than the Sabre franchise is under the ownership of Terry P.

I always thought arbitrators tend to favor the players.

That's because Friedman gets his into fed to him by player agents but that's not what he's going to get in arbitration and not what the Sabres offered or he'd be signed.

Who was this offer sheet coming from? 4 things: 1) You need all your own pick next year to make one. 2) You have to be a team that is confident you will make the playoffs next year and have enough cap space to fit Byram’s salary in. 3) Next year is the McKenna draft. No team with a lot of cap space is going to risk handing their unprotected first to Buffalo and watch them win the lottery with it and draft McKenna. 4) Sabres aren’t in a Cap crunch so they can match the offer. The offer sheet was made up by Byram’s agent and spoon feed to Dreger to release publicly. Notice that all the other insiders disputed that one would come.

Sabres elected arbitration?

I agree they're doing things right. But let them make the playoffs first.

I was basing the $9MM figure from a 32 Thoughts pod where they were guessing Byram's next deal. They felt that's his worth.

Sabres just don't make moves like this. They just don't.

Well of course he does. He's better than those stiffs but you aren't going to build a winning team and culture with these sort of temporary fixes. Now I have heard Byram wanted 9 million and no way do I think we should have paid that, but I'd rather have traded him and made moves to fill that void. Orlov or somebody could have been signed to temporarily fill the Byram hole if Adams was on the ball. The way this is trending I think it will all fall apart within 2 years.

If he continues to run the franchise in the same manner that he has already run it during his tenure, then the franchise will continue to sputter along. So far this off-season I haven’t seen any urgency or appreciable difference in how he has been operating. I find his casual behavior to be odd.

Fan fiction.

It's funny how everybody says that about everybody who leaves and yet they keep leaving. The team is NOT committed to winning and it shows. That's the difference. Utah at least appears like it will do everything it can to get better. When have we felt that way about the Sabres? Players know this.

I'm good with 3 years of Byram in exchange for 6 months of Mitts. At this point, I think Byram on defense makes us better than Ryan Johnson or Bryson or more minutes for Samuelsson

@LGR4GM's take here is the only reasonable response to this development: it's a smart move considering the circumstances. We all know the hole the Sabres have dug for themselves so this scenario shouldn't be all that shocking. I got the sense from the last couple of press appearances by Adams that the team might rather keep BB unless the offer is really good and contributes to Win Mode Now. Compare the way he talked about Byram to the way he talked about Peterka leading up to the trade. Now they stand to get BB for ~$5.5 x 2 contract and can push off trade talks to the deadline next season, where by then a motivated BB has increased his trade value.

I've been talking about that for years. You make multiple deals. Some teams want picks. Some teams want players. You mix and match appropriately. It's not that hard. This is stupid by the Sabres. This is not how you create a team where players will want to come. Byram will be 2 years and gone as a UFA.

A very small part of me (but growing) doesn't want Pegula to be eventually 'rewarded' with a good team (through dumb luck) with how he has chosen to run things the last 10 or so years. He's penny pinching on the roster/cap. He's penny pinching on scouting and the front office. He is only investing into the Arena what is really necessary at this point. He has drastically cut back on any investment in training facilities. He went from being all about winning/creating 'hockey heaven' to being an old guy checking his change purse every day regarding the Sabres.

The closest thing Byram will ever get is to Dahlin is to be his partner. After his 2 years or up, he can then try to be him on another team. Hopefully, we’ll flip him next offseason when another team thinks he’s Dahlin-lite. But, yes, he wants Dahlin’s position, but failed at it last season. And I also think it’s obvious other teams don’t see him playing a Dahlin-role as well. Otherwise, we would have our king’s ransom.

Their owner is not dopey enough to hire an ill-equipped person to be his GM . And the new owner would not be dopey enough to retain a GM with such a middling 5 year record. Ownership matters!

Yea... sure he could. "According to AFP Analytics’ offseason contract projections, Byram is worth roughly $5.2 million on a one-year contract. That’s a useful starting point for estimating his award." https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6477038/2025/07/06/bowen-byram-sabres-salary-arbitration/ A couple days in UFA is what? 85% of all unrestricted free agents gone.

100% agree. Keeping Byram now, gives them more time to see if Quinn or Rosen can step up and fill a role in the top 9 im optimistic about Quinn still Play Byram next to Dahlin, his numbers will look great and drive up his trade value. if Quinn doesn't rebound , then you will have a market for Byram

What part of signing Byram is funny?

Does he have a NTC? If so, why waste any brain cells even dreaming about?