Report: Sabres sign Bowen Byram to a two year 6.25 million dollar AAV contract extension

[St. Pete Gogolak]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

I'm getting serious Dread Pirate Westley vibes from this photo.  Good signing.

As you wish.

[inkman]

10 hours ago, That Aud Smell said:

Um.

Wtf?!

Where is our additional top-6 (middle 6?!) forward?

Where is the new power play coach?

It feels like Sabres ‘25-26 won’t sniff 80 points.

 

10 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I congratulate Adams.  He has secured another losing season and Byram will take his services to a team that wants to win next off-season when Adams trades him for another RFA or soon to be RFA.  

"And the seasons they go round and round,

And the painted ponies go up and down,

We're captive on the carousel of time"

 

10 hours ago, Thorny said:

No team is trading for him now. There’s no trade coming 

He’s walked to UFA 

 

10 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Livid.  This was the off-season to fix goaltending and defense.  Instead he damaged the offense, the only good part of the team, left the crappy goaltending intact and add two 3rd line RHD.  

 

9 hours ago, Thorny said:

Right that’s what I’m saying: he’s not getting traded this summer 

People that are dreamily envisioning it as a building block transaction for something to improve this summer are mistaken - that’s what I’m saying (nm that being beyond Adams’ capacity) 

There wasn’t “more coming” after the JJ trade - it wasn’t the “first shoe”.

remember? “I’ll judge the Peterka deal when we see what’s next” 

nothing was next . I’ll happily eat the shoe if there is 

- - - 

 

 

9 hours ago, CallawaySabres said:

So unbelievably predictable, what a freaking joke this organization is. It’s going to be hilarious when they are booed off the ice after the first home game of the season.

Y’all were told the only successful course of action was trading Byram for offense.  Which could still happen.  Unfortunately, WGR and Sabres Twitter mandated that it was the only path to success. Now, just like the WR situation with the Bills, things took a turn in a different direction and we are calling it a failure based on predetermined expectations set by outside influences. 

[...]

It'll make it easier to trade him now that his price is set. 

[The Jokeman]

10 hours ago, sabremike said:

Here were your two options:

A) Take the late first + B/C level prospect that other teams were offering in a trade.

B) Sign him to a short term deal.

 

Think it's obvious which option was the correct choice.

We can hope he has another great season in 2025-26 and maybe move him in season or after for more talent in goal or in the forward ranks as needed. I'll give the team credit to getting him to a fair contract but all things considered think this was the second best scenario of how this played out. 

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

11 minutes ago, inkman said:

Y’all were told the only successful course of action was trading Byram for offense.  Which could still happen.  Unfortunately, WGR and Sabres Twitter mandated that it was the only path to success. Now, just like the WR situation with the Bills, things took a turn in a different direction and we are calling it a failure based on predetermined expectations set by outside influences. 

The defense would certainly look worse without Byram than it does with him next to Dahlin (unless Byram's game goes to *****). 

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

We can hope he has another great season in 2025-26 and maybe move him in season or after for more talent in goal or in the forward ranks as needed. I'll give the team credit to getting him to a fair contract but all things considered think this was the second best scenario of how this played out. 

If the Sabres are F-ed at the trade deadline but Byram has played very well, there will be playoff bound teams very interested in his services, especially with another year on his deal. Or if Buffalo is somehow, someway, by some hockey God's almighty will in the playoff picture, Byram probably helped get us there. 

[French Collection]

I expect his best season to be the 26/27 season, as he sniffs the big money of pending UFA status. No stats to back this up but 80-90% of career seasons happen there. That will be when they will have to trade him.

[Taro T]

Yes, this walks him to UFA status as early as he could get there.

It also gets his UFA money pushed out to when Skinner's cap hit is only a bit over $2MM/year and not hitting next year's cap when Skinner's hit is over $6MM.  Which gives them money to re-sign Tuch and still add more to the roster this season and next.

They still need to add a veteran forward.  They still need to find a way to not have the coaching equivalent of dumb and dumber and even dumber yet; realistically it looks like that will wait until next year; which is ridiculously frustrating when the concern is Dahlin, Thompson, and Tuch will want out.  Of course, Dahlin, Thompson, Power, and Norris are all signed through '29-'30 so there's only so much any of them can do to get off this garbage scowl.  (But don't want Tuch bolting either.)

If they'd've fixed the coaching and were to bring in that aforementioned F, wouldn't hate this off-season.  (It still would have needed to have the GTing work out and they didn't honestly address it.  But they would've improved 2 of 4 areas in need of improvement and marginally improved another.  Presuming they do bring in another F, will improving 1 of 4 and marginally improving another be enough?  Only if all the items they need to break their way actually do so.)

[LGR4GM]

You know what is funny. I bet if he was 1yr away from UFA and Adams signed him to the same 2yr deal, ppl would be all nodding their heads like "oh good good, got one of his UFAs years under contract so we can always re-sign him." 

Also if Byram sucks you are rid of him in 2years unlike the only 2 million dollar a year less, Mattias Samuelsson. 

Edited 8 hours ago by LGR4GM

[JohnC]

8 minutes ago, inkman said:

 

 

 

 

 

Y’all were told the only successful course of action was trading Byram for offense.  Which could still happen.  Unfortunately, WGR and Sabres Twitter mandated that it was the only path to success. Now, just like the WR situation with the Bills, things took a turn in a different direction and we are calling it a failure based on predetermined expectations set by outside influences. 

You are astute and perspicacious. 

Some people get invested in their own narrative. The longer they promote their own narrative the more unwilling they are to see a different course. So when the Sabres go in a different direction (maybe temporarily?) due to a lot of variables that can't control, this pumped up crowd becomes deflated when the outcomes deviated from their road map. There are plenty of reasons to be critical of this flailing franchise. But in this particular case the GM acted reasonably well with the situation on hand. The moral of the story: It's easy to get angry when you work at it. 

[dudacek]

9 hours ago, Brawndo said:

 

Never been strong in my J Fresh.

Is this card legit saying that based on whatever model they use Byram’s game has been worse than all but 3% of NHL defencemen? Basically, he’s among the worst half-dozen blueliners in the league?

That shouldn’t pass anyone’s sniff test.
 

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

There are a lot of ifs involved in this team hitting its ceiling. We all see it and all we can do is hope.

They need to come out of blocks strong and get points early when teams are getting their legs and figuring things out. Once mid season hits and teams start grinding for playoff spots the Sabres “softness” will be exposed.

What players on this roster do people expect to show up when the going gets tough?

Who are the softies holding us back who need to be purged?

 

[French Collection]

Just now, dudacek said:

What players on this roster do people expect to show up when the going gets tough?

Who are the softies holding us back who need to be purged?

Dahlin, Benson, Tuch, Zucker, Greenway, Thompson, Krebs, Byram, Kesselring, Doan and Danforth will show up.

Kulich can get there.

Norris, Timmins and Malenstyn can buy in if the rest are doing their share, they are not lead dogs.

Power, Quinn, Bryson and Samuelsson need to be dragged into battle or purged if the Lady Byng is their idea of hardware. They will never be Bennetts but they need to want to win 50/50 battles.

[JP51]

trying to digest this signing..... in terms of good or bad... in the end a lot of it has to do with what comes next... 

Getting him signed with a 2 year term - Good, he could have went with 1 year in arbitration so if we do want to trade at least we have some term

Him being on our team - Good hoping Dahlin pairing brings the best out of him 

What about a trade - Good/Bad - Its bad we didnt land a top 6 forward, but was that realistic was adams finding out that any one he thought was acceptable didnt want to come here.... Good - not confident Adams would make a trade that would be equal in value today... likely would need prospects to even it up.  also Good at least for the time being the asset stays and there is a chance that if the time comes to move said asset (past this year) that it wont be Adams doing the moving

Adams handling of the situation - Good - you all know what I think of him and his ineptness, but he got him signed with minor term to a reasonable deal and didnt get us fleeced in a trade because he caved to the pressure. I think he saw the market realized that there was no "real" hockey trade there only picks and prospects to even up a lesser player for Bo.  He honestly IMO made the best of a really bad overall situation for the Sabres that limits their ability to even make reasonable trades due to NMCs.  

Situation - Really Bad - the fact that we have to keep discussing the extreme difficulty for the Sabres to engage in trades with out having to seek equal value in prospects and picks... and in the end they can do what they want... but until this narrative changes ( and we all have our opinions on how and if it will change) you really will tread water in the make/dont make the playoff pool, will never really be a contender unless you get reaaaaally lucky and get Tom Brady in the 6th rd per se... and happen to hit on superstars in the draft... 

Over all I give Adams the did the best he probably could without really removing options and really happy he didnt crap himself on this one cause this coulda gone wayward... maybe JKek  helped 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by JP51

[tom webster]

11 hours ago, Thorny said:

 

Hey

I guess we have to give KA credit for working around the system and calling their bluff as well as understanding that Bo was alright with staying here 

[That Aud Smell]

58 minutes ago, inkman said:

Now, just like the WR situation with the Bills, things took a turn in a different direction and we are calling it a failure based on predetermined expectations set by outside influences. 

46 minutes ago, Taro T said:

They still need to add a veteran forward.  They still need to find a way to not have the coaching equivalent of dumb and dumber and even dumber yet

Here are some of my outside influences setting expectations?

31 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Never been strong in my J Fresh.

Is this card legit saying that based on whatever model they use Byram’s game has been worse than all but 3% of NHL defencemen? Basically, he’s among the worst half-dozen blueliners in the league?

That shouldn’t pass anyone’s sniff test.
 

What players on this roster do people expect to show up when the going gets tough?

Who are the softies holding us back who need to be purged?

I love the Jfresh cards.

I don't understand them, for the life of me.

They're pretty to look at though. And they seem to have a rational basis for the numbers they offer.

[DarthEbriate]

11 hours ago, Thorny said:

So his value will go up when he fails to get opportunity? Just curious 

An injury to Power or Dahlin would give him ample opportunity.

The sub- $7M contract is a good value for another team looking to acquire a potential PP D-man. There are still trade possibilities before the end of the contract.

If traded next summer, the return won't be as great on a one-year rental to UFA -- think Pu-Skinner. And the Pegulas wouldn't consider retention, so you have to take salary back... so it's limiting what KA can even do.

10 hours ago, Porous Five Hole said:

Yes, Kess’s trajectory can be elite. This team is going to have to be better than everyone else by being better at the blue line than everyone else.  It’s just the way that it is when you draft #1 overall at the blue line twice. Hope is a ***** strategy, but I hope the blue line takes a huge step forward. It’s the most logical path toward this team being elite. And no credit to KA if and when that happens. 

I don't know that Kesselring should be considered elite potential.

He's a 6th round pick who made it to the 3rd pair by and got increased playing time because of injuries. He had good metrics on a team that had good metrics overall but lacked top-end scoring to compete with a very tough division. That's what we know thus far.

2 hours ago, Eleven said:

I'm getting serious Dread Pirate Westley vibes from this photo.  Good signing.

Good night, Byram. Good work, sleep well. I'll most likely trade you at the deadline.

 

Overall: The team is better with Byram on the roster than losing him to a 1st/2nd/3rd offer sheet to some perennial playoff team. So... there's that.

[dudacek]

Is there a popular opinion floating around that the Sabres were better off trading Byram for an equivalent forward?

The thought of Samuelsson in the top 4 and Bryson in the starting 6 is far more frightening to me than Zucker or Kulich in the top 6 and Justin Danforth on the 4th line.

3 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I love the Jfresh cards.

I don't understand them, for the life of me.

They're pretty to look at though. And they seem to have a rational basis for the numbers they offer.

Does Byram as an NHL/AHL tweener ring true to you?

[That Aud Smell]

5 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Is there a popular opinion floating around that the Sabres were better off trading Byram for an equivalent forward?

The thought of Samuelsson in the top 4 and Bryson in the starting 6 is far more frightening to me than Zucker or Kulich in the top 6 and Justin Danforth on the 4th line.

6 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Does Byram as an NHL/AHL tweener ring true to you?

I guess not?

I'm probably not up to speed enough to play along here.

I did find JFresh's "3" WAR rating for Byram to be shockingly low.

But that's an account that has explanations for its #fancystats.

[That Aud Smell]

@dudacek some context? (but not really.)

 

[LGR4GM]

58 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Never been strong in my J Fresh.

Is this card legit saying that based on whatever model they use Byram’s game has been worse than all but 3% of NHL defencemen? Basically, he’s among the worst half-dozen blueliners in the league?

That shouldn’t pass anyone’s sniff test.
 

What players on this roster do people expect to show up when the going gets tough?

Who are the softies holding us back who need to be purged?

 

It is a 3yr weighted average. Byram was bad in Colorado when we traded for him and not great until getting with Dahlin. That said, if he plays great with Dahlin, none of the rest of it matters. 

[That Aud Smell]

more from JFresh

 

[Taro T]

23 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

Here are some of my outside influences setting expectations?

I love the Jfresh cards.

I don't understand them, for the life of me.

They're pretty to look at though. And they seem to have a rational basis for the numbers they offer.

???

Did NOT say they need to trade Byram to bring that F in.  There are still a few guys in FA that might fit the bill, though their price tags may be too steep for the Sabres at this point without an ancillary move such as trading Samuelsson happening.  Or they could trade prospects and picks to a team looking to be in the McKenna derby such as the Pens for a guy that still has some hockey left such as Rust.

Had they traded Byram for a F, the post would've stated that they still need to bring a veteran D-man into the fold.  

[Stads]

How are we in the middle of the pack for cap space remaining? Our roster is not representative of a team with only 7.39 million left (which won't be used anyway). Make it make sense. I know you can't but I'm losing it man!

[LGR4GM]

 

 

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

more from JFresh

 

Not sure if he necessarily wants to be the #1 D-man or just wants to be paid like one.  Because unless his play improves quite a bit, he's not going to be the #1 on many teams, and it's doubtful any of them would be true contenders (because those teams don't have a really good D-man already) though they might have a fantastic goalie or stacked F's.  Suppose he could be the #1 guy on a team like the Loafs which are at least on paper contenders; but they spend their money so heavily on F's they aren't actual contenders and likely wouldn't pay him like a true #1 D because they tie so much up on their F's.

He does already have his name on a SC, so that might not be as burning a desire for him as it might be for some others.  So, maybe there is more of a drive to be "the man."  But personally, believe it's more of a case of him wanting to get paid.