Casey Mittelstadt traded for Bowen Byram

[Flashsabre]

Byram is a hell of a skater. Maybe he is Power’s long term partner. If that happens then the trade was well worth it.

Its what other moves they make that matter now.

im not sold on Cozens at centre. I think he is a high end winger. I think Savoie or Kulich or Celebrini😜 get the shot to fill that role next year. I think Kulich is a winger too.

Like a few others have said I don’t hate or love the deal. Let’s see what other moves happen and how Byram fits with Power or Dahlin.

[Drag0nDan]

18 minutes ago, seer775 said:

Byram is averaging 37 games per season.

He'd be a great hockey player if he, yknow, played hockey.

But he doesn't. He's at the Doctor's office.

Our top scorer was lost to a broken 3rd pair Defensman.

Explain how that is good.

He's played 55 games in his age 22 season.  And even with his injuries - he has already scored more points than mittelstadt did through his age 22 season... as a puck-moving defenseman.  

[Thorner]

40 minutes ago, inkman said:

 

Tweet crashes as burns with “upside”

im more interested in a team looking to compete on THIS side of reality 

[Mango]

7 career fights. 3 in the NHL. 

All of them give off big Dylan Cozens vibes. Fishbowl incoming. 

https://www.hockeyfights.com/players/24753

[Drag0nDan]

26 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Byram is so young, but 2 years ago he played great in the playoffs for Colorado. So, without concussions, he could be one of those good-to-very-good D-men at an accelerated age.  He has those worrying concussions, but when you watched his entire playoff run 2 years ago, he looked like he could be a star on the back end.

Pluse he's a player. An actual Player who had at least one great playoff run individually, he's not another 'draft pick' that we can look forward to in a few years. He's a guy that has injury issues, but has had some great games as a young guy that we get to see play now.

Plus Mitts, is he better than Cozens or Tage?  To me, when everyone is healthy, I think ultimately he is the 3rd center on this team, which means he isn't going to be a guy that gets 1st line Power play time for the rest of his career. I guess Mitts "may" deserver $6-$7m per year, but I don't want to give that to a 3rd guy who is likely to get closer to 3rd line minutes. 

It also seems like there are a LOT of posters here criticizing the Sabres for thinking Cozens and Tage were better than they were, making the case they simply had 'career' years.....can't the same thinking be applied to Mitts this year? Difference is, Tage's 'career' year was almost 50 goals. Cozens was 30+ goals when he was 22. Mitts current season 'could' be a career year when he is on a 20 goal pace already at his age 25 season.

As for the D-group....Maybe Dahlin wears down with his heavy minutes. Power too. Samuelsson is injured all the time.  Maybe, MAYBE bringing in another young, highly regarded guy...you can reduce the minutes of everyone (spreading them out among the whole group) and make them all better/less likely to be injured.

 I'm trying to look at this in a positive way.  The negative thinking (I got negative in a BIG way with Cozens earlier this season) and the negativity of this board finally got to me about 2 weeks ago and I'm choosing to look at the positive side of things.

I mean...  Mittelstadt has never scored even 16 goals in a season, Cozens and tage have both put up 30+.  Been a rough year with injuries, shooting % down, and just a lack of an identity.

[Thorner]

30 minutes ago, seer775 said:

Byram is averaging 37 games per season.

He'd be a great hockey player if he, yknow, played hockey.

But he doesn't. He's at the Doctor's office.

Our top scorer was lost to a broken 3rd pair Defensman.

Explain how that is good.

If injuries are mentioned even once as an excuse during the end of year conference.. 

[WhenWillItEnd66]

25 minutes ago, SabreFinn said:

We got a real hockey trade! GMKA can't be done yet if he starts with a move like this.

Be ready for some serious disappointment.....

[K-9]

30 minutes ago, seer775 said:

Byram is averaging 37 games per season.

He'd be a great hockey player if he, yknow, played hockey.

But he doesn't. He's at the Doctor's office.

Our top scorer was lost to a broken 3rd pair Defensman.

Explain how that is good.

Byram has played just nine games less than Mitts did after his first four season and was a 2nd pair D man on one of the top teams in the league. “Broken 3rd pair defenseman” is simply not an accurate description. 

[#freejame]

Just now, WhenWillItEnd66 said:

Be ready for some serious disappointment.....

If he’s healthy I don’t think people will end up disappointed with Bryam. It’s just not the best use of assets imo. 

[WhenWillItEnd66]

6 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

He's played 55 games in his age 22 season.  And even with his injuries - he has already scored more points than mittelstadt did through his age 22 season... as a puck-moving defenseman.  

We do not need another Puck moving defenseman. We need a defensive defenseman that can hit,  be hard to play against without breaking. 

[wsam4031]

34 minutes ago, seer775 said:

Byram is averaging 37 games per season.

He'd be a great hockey player if he, yknow, played hockey.

But he doesn't. He's at the Doctor's office.

Our top scorer was lost to a broken 3rd pair Defensman.

Explain how that is good.

typical bad team move. Avs happy they dumped his salary and get a productive player back. No wonder the Sabres stay irrelevant

[Thorner]

26 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Well, I'm not surprised. Say that off the top. 

The Cozens/Tage contracts made Mitts unsignable since he's outplayed them and thus likely wanted that kind of money and they weren't going to do it, period. I personally would have explored trading Thompson first, but one of the three was definitely out of the mix so Adams went with the unsigned guy and that's that. 

Now, Byram. He's a pretty good puck moving guy who plays under the shadow of Makar so MAYBE he hasn't been able to show his full potential. Having said that though, he'll be in the same spot with Dahlin here. The injury history is troubling and although 6'1" is adequate, he's only 190 lbs at age 22 and that imo is too light to be a solid D man. That's Cliffy's weight and Cliffy's short. imo you want your D 200 lbs. plus. This, imo, is not the player we need. 

Having said that, he's better than Jokiharju and he does upgrade our D so with little in the prospect D pool I can't fault this move entirely. It's a risk, but it does give us a better D than we had. 

What I really suspect however, is that this is just kicking the can down the road in terms of free agents. Byram will be an RFA after next season so (assuming he performs well) we will be in the exact same point again as it'll be Power, Dahlin and Byram and how much can top 3 D make just like Cozens, Thompson, Mitts and how much money do top 3 centers make. Strong possibility we will be deadline dealing Byram next year. 

So,

1) did KA have any choice? Probably not. One of the 3 had to go.

2) is our D better? Yes. Slightly.

3) is our team better? No. We now definitely need a 3C in free agency or by another trade. 

But at least he did something. 

 

It is ABSURD to say KA didn’t have a choice. Absurd. By the prism of his own strategies? Sure: but those strategies are in and of themselves a choice. He was an *RFA*. If we had interest in prioritizing RESULTS next year, the decision was clear

even our hockey trades aren’t hockey trades, they are a willing shift towards prioritizing the future. Again. Never about the now: we just refuse. 

Edited March 6 by Thorny

[etiennep99]

TBH, I had wanted Byram for a long time. But his last concussion started to change *my* mind.  And TBH, in another thread this morning, I was complaining that the Sabres brass felt forced to play Dahlin 30 minutes a night.  I'll cross my fingers and hope that Byram stays healthy enough.  This could be a good trade.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Here is the best news of all.  He is likely only going to be here for a year and will likely be traded at next year's deadline or after next season.  He has one year left on his deal at 3.8 and then he is an RFA.  Given the Pegula internal cap and the money invested in Samuelsson, Dahlin, and Power, we won't be able to re-sign Byram if he has a good season.  

 

[Derrico]

7 minutes ago, Drag0nDan said:

He's played 55 games in his age 22 season.  And even with his injuries - he has already scored more points than mittelstadt did through his age 22 season... as a puck-moving defenseman.  

Plus I'm reading a ton of Avs fans talking about how he was their best dman during their cup run two years ago.  He's had injuries to be sure.  There's also enough there that it wouldn't shock me he plays well for us next season.  This isn't a draft pick lottery ticket we won't see for 5 years.  This is a 22 year old young man who comes with a high pedigree and alteast demonstrated in the past he can play big minutes in the NHL when the stakes are at their highest. 

[Drag0nDan]

2 minutes ago, WhenWillItEnd66 said:

We do not need another Puck moving defenseman. We need a defensive defenseman that can hit,  be hard to play against without breaking. 

The team is bad! They NEED to a shake-up across most of the roster.  

[inkman]

44 minutes ago, breese866 said:

who is the better payer of the two?

Byram and it’s not close.  He’s a 4th overall pick, top pairing dman. 

[Thorner]

Anyways, it’s a very interesting trade. As a trade, as an examination of value and team building, I don’t understand it. But I don’t understand a lot of what KA does in a strategic sense. The trade is certainly par for the course. Nothing really changes: next year is, finally, KA’s 5th year on the job. He’s still on his last chance. If this is one of the moves he made to give the team the best chance of success next year, he can live and die by it.

Byram himself: seems reasonably talented. We’ve rostered plenty of good players. We see them go on to amazing things once gone. He’s probably another good player! KA has shown an ability to bring in good players. He’s shown literally zero ability for those transactions to matter as a means to an end: the only thing that matters 

jury is still out. But they are heading in soon. There are footsteps.  

[Night Train]

18 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Have I definitively won the “Samuelsson’s deal was bad” argument vs the entirety of the board, yet?

cnn is getting ready to make a call 

Samuelsson was bad enough. Then came the Power contract. 

I can only hope they wake up and get some proper coaching , in addition to a backbone. 

[pi2000]

35 minutes ago, seer775 said:

Byram is averaging 37 games per season.

He'd be a great hockey player if he, yknow, played hockey.

But he doesn't. He's at the Doctor's office.

Our top scorer was lost to a broken 3rd pair Defensman.

Explain how that is good.

Byram is 22, he's been concussion free for 2 years now... had a lower body injury after that.

I like the gamble, he's a grade A prospect KA is buying low... and selling while Casey's stock is at an all-time high. 

I recall Casey dealing with some injury issues early on in his career as well.

[rickshaw]

It’s not the worst deal but it leads me to believe more is in the works.

I know it’s potential but our defense could be serious in a few years if they can add some right handed players.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

Byram and it’s not close.  He’s a 4th overall pick, top pairing dman. 

[Pimlach]

1 hour ago, kas23 said:

I get it. But don’t like it. Casey will be a PPG player on the Avs. We better know how to develop this guy. 

Sabres development process:

1.  Rush him into the line up.  
2.  Live with his mistakes because he is young 

3.  Once he gets to prime age trade him because he said he wants to leave. 
 

[inkman]

5 minutes ago, Night Train said:

Samuelsson was bad enough. Then came the Power contract. 

I can only hope they wake up and get some proper coaching , in addition to a backbone. 

That doesn’t come with coaching it comes inherently in the player.  The Sabres need more of them. 

[bunomatic]

Joke. Casey had devoped into a good player and thats what we do is trade them away. Is BB the best KA could get ?