Bo Byram ultimate final prediction

[GASabresIUFAN]

11 minutes ago, Scottysabres said:

I think Adams is playing this perfectly. He can match any offer sheet, so if a team thinks they will, they are lying to themselves and hockey fans in general. If Byram stays, even short term, it’s a win. He’s more than capable of making us better.

if he’s traded, it will be on Adams terms, he holds all  the cards.

That's a fantasy.  Wait too long and the offers dry up as teams look elsewhere and/or they run out of cap space.  Eventually, you run out of suitors and then you are left with having to re-sign a player who doesn't want to be here.  This what happened with both Ullmark and Reinhart.  Maybe he just signs a 1 year deal and forces Adams to trade him at the deadline or next off-season (his last as an RFA).  Regardless, better trade him now while there is a market for his services.

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

I think Dahlin Power would weaken the second pair too much. Dahlin makes almost everyone better. So if get a F for Byram, and still have cap room we can look for a low cost vet Dman. It doesn't matter what handed since Dahlin can play either.

Is this what Sabres ever do? Unless you're talking a low cost as in league minimum AHL/NHL guy there's nobody there to get. They traded Clifton because depth be damned. The other option (as this team functions) is Dahlin-Samuelsson and Power-Kesselring and that ain't a good idea. Dahlin-Power for 30 minutes a night might be how they roll - all the way to the McKenna lottery.

[Scottysabres]

46 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

That's a fantasy.  Wait too long and the offers dry up as teams look elsewhere and/or they run out of cap space.  Eventually, you run out of suitors and then you are left with having to re-sign a player who doesn't want to be here.  This what happened with both Ullmark and Reinhart.  Maybe he just signs a 1 year deal and forces Adams to trade him at the deadline or next off-season (his last as an RFA).  Regardless, better trade him now while there is a market for his services.

Hardly a fantasy. He’s 2 seasons away to UFA. His value isn’t at an apex now, not even close given his age and it’s the off season. I don’t know where you’d get that idea from, but it is simply not the case. Buffalo holds his rights, they hold all the cards.

[JohnC]

7 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Adams just needs to get this over already.  Sign him or trade him.  Enough!  The trade offers aren't going to get any better and if he can't find a deal he likes, then make a friggin decision to bridge him or sign him long-term.  Just get it done so that this isn't hanging over the franchise any longer.  We all know (and so does Adams) that whatever decision he makes won't improve the team, so why wait?

G-d I loath Adams.

Why does he have to yield to an inadequate deal rather than just keeping him? What’s funny is that you are going to criticize him when/if he gets dealt for the return and if kept you’re still going to criticize him. Poor fellow can’t win. No matter where he goes he’s going to take a beating.

[GASabresIUFAN]

29 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Why does he have to yield to an inadequate deal rather than just keeping him? What’s funny is that you are going to criticize him when/if he gets dealt for the return and if kept you’re still going to criticize him. Poor fellow can’t win. No matter where he goes he’s going to take a beating.

It’s a results business and he had failed at every turn.  He deserves to get criticized.  

Remember Byram is a redundant asset.  He the 3rd puck moving LHD on the team.  His value is greater to other teams that lack his skill set.  The problem is if he pulls the trigger on a trade we know that the return will be inadequate.

We also know, with 25 mill already sunk in Dahlin, Power and Mule, that another large contract for a poor defensive D would be a mistake for the Sabres.  

To further complicate matters, if he trades Byram for a forward, Dahlin again has no partner.  There are no top 4 D left in free agency and I doubt someone is going to trade us a top 4 RHD at this point.  

So Adams has painted himself into a corner.  If he keeps Byram the team suffers and if trades Byram the team likely suffers as well.  Well done Kevyn.

Edited 8 hours ago by GASabresIUFAN

[LGR4GM]

7 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It’s a results business and he had failed at every turn.  He deserves to get criticized.  

Remember Byram is a redundant asset.  He the 3rd puck moving LHD on the team.  His value is greater to other teams that lack his skill set.  The problem is if he pulls the trigger on a trade we know that the return will be inadequate.

We also know, with 25 mill already sunk in Dahlin, Power and Mule, that another large contract for a poor defensive D would be a mistake for the Sabres.  

To further complicate matters, if he trades Byram, Dahlin again has no partner.  There are no top 4 D left in free agency and I doubt someone is going to trade us a top 4 RHD at this point.  

So Adams has painted himself into a corner.  If he keeps Byram the team suffers and if trades Byram the team likely suffers as well.  Well done Kevyn.

Just want to note Dahlin is very good in his own end. Not necessarily disagreeing with your main point. 

???? - Dahlin

Power - Kesselring 

Samuelsson - Timmins

Bryson

Even if you put Samuelsson with Dahlin, we're still short a defender. Really hope Novikov makes lots of skating strides this offseason.

Edited 8 hours ago by LGR4GM

[GASabresIUFAN]

So what is the solution?

I honestly don’t know

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Just want to note Dahlin is very good in his own end. Not necessarily disagreeing with your main point. 

I agree, Dahlin is great and makes everyone he plays with look decent even if they aren’t. 

Edited 8 hours ago by GASabresIUFAN

[JohnC]

2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It’s a results business and he had failed at every turn.  He deserves to get criticized.  

Remember Byram is a redundant asset.  He the 3rd puck moving LHD on the team.  His value is greater to other teams that lack his skill set.  The problem is if he pulls the trigger on a trade we know that the return will be inadequate.

We also know, with 25 mill already sunk in Dahlin, Power and Mule, that another large contract for a poor defensive D would be a mistake for the Sabres.  

To further complicate matters, if he trades Byram for a forward, Dahlin again has no partner.  There are no top 4 D left in free agency and I doubt someone is going to trade us a top 4 RHD at this point.  

So Adams has painted himself into a corner.  If he keeps Byram the team suffers and if trades Byram the team likely suffers as well.  Well done Kevyn.

Being critical of KA's performance is like stating water is wet. It's obvious to all. Few people would argue otherwise. However, what you are doing is overlaying his overall performance to how he has handled the individual Byram issue. Based on your prior post, you seem to encourage him just to make a deal in order to end this ordeal. That would be the worst course of action that the GM could take. He's not obligated to trade him if the return isn't a fair return. He can keep him. 

As far as what would be a fair return for BB? I would take either a top two pairing or a top two-line player. If that type of deal can't be made, then just keep him. There is a lot of things to be critical of this flaccid GM. In my view it is not how he has handled this particular situation. 

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Being critical of KA's performance is like stating water is wet. It's obvious to all. Few people would argue otherwise. However, what you are doing is overlaying his overall performance to how he has handled the individual Byram issue. Based on your prior post, you seem to encourage him just to make a deal in order to end this ordeal. That would be the worst course of action that the GM could take. He's not obligated to trade him if the return isn't a fair return. He can keep him. 

As far as what would be a fair return for BB? I would take either a top two pairing or a top two-line player. If that type of deal can't be made, then just keep him. There is a lot of things to be critical of this flaccid GM. In my view it is not how he has handled this particular situation. 

 

Sure he can keep him, but that doesn’t make the team better.  That’s the whole point.  The goal of the offseason was for the Sabres to get better.  So far Adams, unsurprisingly, has failed again.  All keeping Byram does is kick the can down the road for another season of failure.  Great!  What a smart solution.  

The only way to get better is to move him to a team that needs his skillet and get piece(s) we need like a playmaker for the top 6, a starting goalie, and or a defensively sound top 4 D.  

 

[JohnC]

39 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Sure he can keep him, but that doesn’t make the team better.  That’s the whole point.  The goal of the offseason was for the Sabres to get better.  So far Adams, unsurprisingly, has failed again.  All keeping Byram does is kick the can down the road for another season of failure.  Great!  What a smart solution.  

The only way to get better is to move him to a team that needs his skillet and get piece(s) we need like a playmaker for the top 6, a starting goalie, and or a defensively sound top 4 D.  

 

The Sabres are certainly a better team with Byram than if the return for him is insufficient. So what if they kick the Byram issue down the road? If it ultimately leads to a better return, then that's a positive action, not a negative action. 

Most of us are aware that the Sabres have multiple issues to address. (In my view, the goalie position is the most critical issue.) What you are doing is conflating the Byram issue with the other team issues. That seems to be an unreasonable/unfair approach to take when discussing the Byram issue. 

Edited 7 hours ago by JohnC

[GASabresIUFAN]

26 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

???? - Dahlin

Power - Kesselring 

Samuelsson - Timmins

Bryson

Even if you put Samuelsson with Dahlin, we're still short a defender. Really hope Novikov makes lots of skating strides this offseason.

That doesn’t have to be the case.  I’ve suggested Byram to Calg for Rasmus Anderson plus another asset.  Anderson is on a reasonable 1 year deal and might enjoy playing with Dahlin enough to re-sign.  

I would then hope that a second move could be made using the Calg asset and someone like Quinn to acquire a top 6 playmaker.  

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The Sabres are certainly a better team with Byram than if the return for him is insufficient. So what if they kick the Byram issue down the road? If it ultimately leads to a better return, then that's a positive action, not a negative action. 

Most of us are aware that the Sabres have multiple issues to address. (In my view, the goalie position is the most critical issue.) What you are doing is conflating the Byram issue with the other team issues. That to seems to be an unreasonable/unfair approach to take when discussing the Byram issue. 

Bringing back Byram is a status quo move and the status quo is failure.  I agree that any trade Adams makes will likely be inadequate, but it’s the only chance the team has to get better heading into next season.  

[Weave]

5 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

That doesn’t have to be the case.  I’ve suggested Byram to Calg for Rasmus Anderson plus another asset.  Anderson is on a reasonable 1 year deal and might enjoy playing with Dahlin enough to re-sign.  

I would then hope that a second move could be made using the Calg asset and someone like Quinn to acquire a top 6 playmaker.  

 

You have to admit that trading for Andersson has the same risks as re-signing Byram in regards to kicking the can down the road a season or two.  The risk of Andersson not signing is every bit as high as the risk of Byram leaving at the end if a short term deal.

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Weave said:

You have to admit that trading for Andersson has the same risks as re-signing Byram in regards to kicking the can down the road a season or two.  The risk of Andersson not signing is every bit as high as the risk of Byram leaving at the end if a short term deal.

We're on year 5 of Adams just ignoring gt.

[JohnC]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Bringing back Byram is a status quo move and the status quo is failure.  I agree that any trade Adams makes will likely be inadequate, but it’s the only chance the team has to get better heading into next season.  

If bringing back BB is a status quo move then isn't that better than making a move that sets you back further? I don't agree that any move he makes will be inadequate. The JJP trade was a reasonable deal for us considering the circumstances. (He didn't want to be here.) It's certainly not impossible that a fair deal can be constructed, sooner or later, that will be beneficial. 

We seem to be going in circles here. What it appears to me is that you are making a negative assumption before an act has been made. What I'm suggesting is that it might be better to just wait before making a judgment.  

[GASabresIUFAN]

25 minutes ago, Weave said:

You have to admit that trading for Andersson has the same risks as re-signing Byram in regards to kicking the can down the road a season or two.  The risk of Andersson not signing is every bit as high as the risk of Byram leaving at the end if a short term deal.

Yes, but would should at least get another asset back in addition to Andersson.  Plus Andersson is an upgrade on Byram on the ice plus Andersson is deadline tradable if the team is again out of the playoffs.  

[LGR4GM]

2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Yes, but would should at least get another asset back in addition to Andersson.  Plus Andersson is an upgrade on Byram on the ice plus Andersson is deadline tradable if the team is again out of the playoffs.  

Is he? Andersson was awful last year. He's got rumors out there he'll only sign in Vegas. Trading Byram for 1yr of Andersson and some futures piece isn't good business. I think Byram with Dahlin is better than Andersson with Dahlin.

[Weave]

15 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Yes, but would should at least get another asset back in addition to Andersson.  Plus Andersson is an upgrade on Byram on the ice plus Andersson is deadline tradable if the team is again out of the playoffs.  

I am not so sure you aren’t injecting alot of bias into this opinion.

And we’ve already traded one high demand player for two lesser assets with dubious expectations for on ice results.  Why the ***** would you want to do it again?

[Archie Lee]

8 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

I think Adams is playing this perfectly. He can match any offer sheet, so if a team thinks they will, they are lying to themselves and hockey fans in general. If Byram stays, even short term, it’s a win. He’s more than capable of making us better.

if he’s traded, it will be on Adams terms, he holds all  the cards.

I appreciate the optimism, but from my angle he holds almost no cards.  He's a 6th year GM who has never made the playoffs and who has at present assembled a team and staff that will be predicted to make the playoffs in 25-26 by nobody except the most optimistic of Sabre fans (I mean no disrespect to optimistic Sabre fans as I was one just 14 months ago).  And the big thing he has accomplished this off-season is to protect the Sabres against a potential offer-sheet on a player who, let's be honest, nobody is 100% certain is actually good (at least in the $7-9 million AAV context). 

 

 

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Yes, but would should at least get another asset back in addition to Andersson.  Plus Andersson is an upgrade on Byram on the ice plus Andersson is deadline tradable if the team is again out of the playoffs.  

If Anderson is better than Bryan (your opinion), then why would the trading team include an additional asset in the deal?

Acting out of frustration when there is no need to at the present time is not a smart strategy. 

[JP51]

On 7/3/2025 at 12:11 PM, oddoublee said:

It's a fine contract for him.......BUT.....that would give the sabres one the most expensive d corps in the league....AND...they are not even particularly a good group.

It's such a frustrating position to be in. 

A wonderful tribute to our GM for sure 

[thewookie1]

5 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

That doesn’t have to be the case.  I’ve suggested Byram to Calg for Rasmus Anderson plus another asset.  Anderson is on a reasonable 1 year deal and might enjoy playing with Dahlin enough to re-sign.  

I would then hope that a second move could be made using the Calg asset and someone like Quinn to acquire a top 6 playmaker.  

 

Andersson isn't good; he fell off a cliff last year and has made it known he only wants to go to Vegas. I'm not trading a top asset for 1 year of a defenseman we need to bounce back and have a snowball's chance in Hell of re-signing.

[Thorny]

14 hours ago, Scottysabres said:

I think Adams is playing this perfectly. He can match any offer sheet, so if a team thinks they will, they are lying to themselves and hockey fans in general. If Byram stays, even short term, it’s a win. He’s more than capable of making us better.

if he’s traded, it will be on Adams terms, he holds all  the cards.

What a GM 

6 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Sure he can keep him, but that doesn’t make the team better.  That’s the whole point.  The goal of the offseason was for the Sabres to get better.  So far Adams, unsurprisingly, has failed again.  All keeping Byram does is kick the can down the road for another season of failure.  Great!  What a smart solution.  

The only way to get better is to move him to a team that needs his skillet and get piece(s) we need like a playmaker for the top 6, a starting goalie, and or a defensively sound top 4 D.  

 

Ya, we are looking for another McLeod trade for sure. Haven’t gotten it yet in an offseason you’d think they’d be even more urgently wanting to make it 

5 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

We're on year 5 of Adams just ignoring gt.

Headed into 6

Ppl should actually give up there as I’ve said: he’s not going to meaningfully address the position if he had any inclination to we’d have see a smidgen of effort 

We won’t see goalie addressed until a new regime 

Edited 1 hour ago by Thorny

[Thorny]

4 hours ago, Archie Lee said:

I appreciate the optimism, but from my angle he holds almost no cards.  He's a 6th year GM who has never made the playoffs and who has at present assembled a team and staff that will be predicted to make the playoffs in 25-26 by nobody except the most optimistic of Sabre fans (I mean no disrespect to optimistic Sabre fans as I was one just 14 months ago).  And the big thing he has accomplished this off-season is to protect the Sabres against a potential offer-sheet on a player who, let's be honest, nobody is 100% certain is actually good (at least in the $7-9 million AAV context). 

 

 

“X”, for being too realistically on point while negative 

[dudacek]

14 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Adams just needs to get this over already.  Sign him or trade him.  Enough!  The trade offers aren't going to get any better and if he can't find a deal he likes, then make a friggin decision to bridge him or sign him long-term.  Just get it done so that this isn't hanging over the franchise any longer.  We all know (and so does Adams) that whatever decision he makes won't improve the team, so why wait?

Personally, I don’t think Adams “wants” to trade Byram.

I think he is legitimately open to the idea - mostly because Bo is not signing for term - but he has a year before he has to cross that bridge and isn’t going to pull the trigger if he doesn’t like the offers.

I wouldn’t call all this smoke a charade, more like an attempt to move the player at the “right” price.

”Just sign him then” isn’t that simple because that takes two and it’s not what Byram prefers.

At some point a deal will be made, or other GMs will get tired of talking. If it gets to the latter, Adams will tell Byram’s camp that it’s time to talk contact, one side will file for arbitration and Byram will officially become a Sabre again some time in August.

Then, Adams may or may not pull the trigger on whatever may be left on the trade market with his leftover cap space.

Not expecting to be whelmed, let alone overwhelmed, but to answer the thread question, I kinda expect Byram on the roster and one more “meh” forward add.