Sabres, Bowen Byram agree to two-year contract to avoid arbitration

[HipKat]

Sabres, Bowen Byram agree to two-year contract to avoid arbitration

The Buffalo Sabres and defenseman Bowen Byram avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a two-year contract with an annual average value of $6.25 million.

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The Buffalo Sabres avoided arbitration with Bowen Byram and signed the defenseman to a two-year contract Monday night worth $6.25 million a year.

Per Puckpedia.com, Byram's extension has a salary of $5.25 million with a $1 million signing bonus for 2025-26, and a $6.25 million salary for 2026-27. With Byram's extension, the Sabres currently have around $7.3 million in cap space, as of Monday evening.

Byram, 24, was a restricted free agent coming off a deal that paid him $3.85 million per season, and the Sabres had elected for salary arbitration with him on July 6.


Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram (4) moves the puck against the Columbus Blue Jackets at KeyBank Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
Joed Viera/Buffalo News

The new deal with Buffalo would take Byram to unrestricted free agency after the 2026-27 season, or it could be a precursor to a deal by the Sabres, by giving a potential trade partner cost certainty for the next two seasons.

Byram had seven goals last season while establishing career highs in assists (31) and points (38) and posting a plus-11 rating. He averaged a career-high 22 minutes, 42 seconds per game and spent much of his time paired with captain Rasmus Dahlin. Their plus-20 goal differential was tied for the best of any NHL pair with Colorado's Cale Makar and Devon Toews.

With Dahlin and Owen Power manning the left side on Buffalo's top two defensive pairs and quarterbacking the power play units, though, there was no room for Byram to move up the ladder and it's believed he was interested in a trade to have a better chance to be a team's top defenseman.

The Sabres originally acquired Byram in a trade from Colorado for center Casey Mittelstadt in March 2024. Byram had three goals and six assists for Buffalo in 18 games in 2023-24, and played all 82 games last season

AFP Analytics projected Byram's next contract to have a short-term annual cap hit of $5.19 million and a long-term annual cap hit of $7.17 million a year.

After the Sabres elected for salary arbitration earlier this month, they could continue to negotiate with Byram and agree to a contract before an arbitration hearing. The two sides avoided a hearing.

"What he knows is we like him, we believe in him," general manager Kevyn Adams said after the conclusion of the NHL draft in June. "We think he makes our team better with him on it. But if there's a trade to make that makes sense, we'll do it. ... He understands how we feel about him, and he knows that we're going to be willing to do whatever we need to do to try to help our team get better."

Adams said during the same news conference that the Sabres were willing to go to a short-term contract of one or two years to keep Byram and would be happy to sew him up on an eight-year deal if the parties could come to an agreement. But he said he also understood Byram taking stock of his career and perhaps angling for a new team that has more needs on defense.

If the Sabres decide not to trade Bowen, keeping him would further fortify a defense led by Dahlin, and one that gains size, toughness and a right-handed shot with the acquisition of Michael Kesselring from Utah.

The Sabres also signed Zac Jones as a free agent, and re-signed Ryan Johnson, who has split the last two seasons between Rochester of the American Hockey League and the Sabres.

Byram was drafted No. 4 overall by Colorado in 2019 and became a regular on the Avs' defense during their 2021-22 Cup-winning campaign. He played 30 games in the regular season that year but then took on a major role in the playoffs, collecting nine assists and posting a plus-15 rating while playing 19:22 a game alongside veteran and future Buffalo defenseman Erik Johnson.

Colorado won its first Cup since 2001 with a six-game triumph over Tampa Bay, ending the Lightning's hopes of the NHL's first three-peat since the New York Islanders won four straight in the 1980s.

 

[swiper]

Beat me to it!

So not everyone wants out of Buffalo.

The Sabres suddenly have one of the best, youngest defenses in the entire league.

 

[HipKat]

Beat me to it!

So not everyone wants out of Buffalo.

The Sabres suddenly have one of the best, youngest defenses in the entire league.

I hope. Weak Defensive play has been the biggest factor in the past few seasons.
Power has not become the force we hoped. Dahlin spends too much time playing the forward position, although he often scores or assists on goals. The team plays weak in its own zone, rarely challenging the incoming rush and leaves players open way too often

 

[HipKat]

Mike Harrington: The Sabres need to be better defensively, and Bowen Byram helps that quest​

Mike Harrington: The Sabres need to be better defensively, and Bowen Byram helps that quest

This was not the resolution we may have expected, but general manager Kevyn Adams laid out the possibility multiple times that the Sabres would be happy to keep Bowen Byram. For now, at least, it appears that's what they're going to do.

buffalonews.com

This was not the resolution we may have expected, but general manager Kevyn Adams laid out the possibility multiple times that the Sabres would be happy to keep Bowen Byram. For now, at least, it appears that’s what they’re going to do.

Byram signed for two years at $6.25 million per late Monday night, seemingly putting an end to the biggest saga of the club’s summer. Pretty good price for both sides, a hefty raise for Byram from $3.8 million and a good figure for the Sabres to have in a top-pair defenseman.

What did the Sabres do exceptionally well here? By electing arbitration prior to working out the deal, they avoided an offer sheet possibility and got a reasonable deal. No one was going to jam them up with some outrageous offer they would have to match, and they weren’t going to give up Byram for draft picks.


Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram played his best when he was paired with Rasmus Dahlin last season.
Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News

What is problematic? Providing a bridge contract that walks Byram to unrestricted free agency on July 1, 2027. Byram, remember, switched agents last season by going with Darren Ferris of Montreal-based Quartexx Management and Ferris is well known in hockey circles for pushing his clients to achieve UFA status.

No criticism there. It is, after all, the agent’s job to get his client the most money and Ferris is one of the best at doing it. Look at the $96 million he just got for Mitch Marner in Vegas. But UFA is still two years down the road for Byram and a lot can change in that time.

TSN’s Darren Dreger reported last week that Ferris was pushing Adams on the trade front recently with an ominous warning that Byram’s trade value will never be as high as it is now.

Perhaps. I could make the argument Byram still is going to have a ton of value at the deadline in March because he would have another year left on his deal. That would provide the Sabres opportunity for a “hockey” trade for NHL players rather than just a picks-and-prospects move.

That said, three NHL sources confirmed Tuesday that Byram has never asked to be moved and the Sabres are not shopping him. The sources would not go on the record because the information had not been made public. Adams undoubtedly would listen to any calls he would get now that there’s cost certainty with Byram, but the word is he’s not initiating any of the chats. He wants Byram on the team.

For all the talk about what Rasmus Dahlin said to Adams in their infamous meeting in the spring, I can virtually guarantee you the captain’s viewpoint was Byram needed to be re-signed and stapled on Dahlin’s right side.

I would hope coach Lindy Ruff would let these pairs grow and leave them alone through any early-season hiccups. Play Dahlin with Byram, Owen Power with Michael Kesselring and Mattias Samuelsson with Conor Timmins.

It’s notable that Dahlin and Byram only played a shade over 626 minutes together at 5 on 5 last season, and ranked just 35th on the ice time chart as a pair. There were 17 pairs that logged more than 850 minutes and nine pairs were over 950. That’s the kind of heavy action they need to see together come October.

For his part, Byram has to know what re-signing can mean. Unlike JJ Peterka, Byram likes this locker room, playing for this team and playing under Ruff. Pairing with Dahlin will help his game — and his future earnings potential. A quick check of last season’s numbers on Natural Stat Trick on Tuesday afternoon was confirmation.

When Dahlin and Byram played together last season, the Sabres outscored their opponents at 5 on 5 by a count of 35-15. Among pairs on the ice at least 500 minutes, that plus-20 differential was tied for league lead with Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar of Colorado and partner Devon Toews, and the Dahlin-Byram pair’s goals-for percentage of 70% was tops in the league.

Overall, Byram and Dahlin did impressive work as a duo, with the team collecting 54.1% of the shot attempts and 57% of the shots on goal.

And get this: Buffalo goalies had a save percentage of .940 last season with Dahlin and Byram on the ice at 5 on 5. That ranks fifth among the pairs. Frankly, that’s pretty astonishing given the overall season Buffalo netminders had and the fact you have to assume the bulk of Dahlin’s and Byram’s ice time was spent against top forward lines.

You want some comparisons? The goalies were at .918 when Samuelsson played with Power, at .892 when Dahlin played with Samuelsson and at just .869 when Byram played with Power.

The Sabres have to be better defensively next season and get better goaltending. On the defensive end, Peterka’s abhorrent backchecking is addition by subtraction and the six-man defensive corps is likely the club’s best since the playoff drought began 14 years ago. All good.

The Sabres have a lot of question marks and things they need to go right. So does every other team in the league. Fans are wasting too much time trying to replace Peterka’s 27 goals and 68 points when he wasn’t worth nearly that much due to his defensive shortcomings.

Go with the “Moneyball” theory: Recreate him in the aggregate. Jack Quinn was mediocre last season and still had 15 goals. Josh Norris has to stay healthy but can easily be a 20-goal man. Let’s see what they get out of Jiri Kulich and Zach Benson. Power and Byram each had seven goals and can produce more, too.

The Sabres were 10th in the league in goals last season, so it’s no biggie if they regress some in that department. It’s all about not being 29th in goals against.

That means your defense and goaltending have to be better. No question they are with Byram on this roster.

The Sabres still have wiggle room to add another player. Maybe there’s still a deal out there for someone like Pittsburgh winger Bryan Rust. The free agents are pretty picked over, although one UFA deal perhaps worth pondering is with winger Jack Roslovic, who is coming off a 22-goal season and a $2.8 million cap hit with the Hurricanes.

It’s mid-July. Let’s see where they are in mid-September when camp opens.