The Avalanche are making their second high-impact deal of Wednesday, acquiring center Casey Mittelstadt from the Sabres in exchange for defenseman Bowen Byram, per a team release.
With the two trades made today, Colorado has increased its salary-cap space to $4.9M leading up to the deadline.
This trade will mark the third attempt by the Avalanche to fill in the second center void left by Nazem Kadri two years ago. With Alex Newhook and Ryan Johansen not working out in the role, Colorado is taking a swing on Mittelstadt amidst his breakout campaign in Buffalo.
Largely inconsistent during his first four years with the Sabres, Mittelstadt has become a formidable offensive threat over his last two campaigns. In 144 games for the Sabres since the start of the 2022-23 season, Mittlestadt has recorded 29 goals and 106 points, as well as leading all Buffalo players in scoring this year.
He will leave much to be desired in the faceoff dot as well as defensive play on his end, but the Avalanche carry enough defensive-minded forwards to shore up Mittelstadt’s shortcomings.
Nevertheless, as they already sit atop the league in GF/G, the introduction of Mittelstadt, coupled with the eventual return of Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog, will create a nearly unstoppable offense for Colorado come playoff time.
The elephant in the room when it comes to Mittelstadt is his looming restricted free agency this summer. With Mittelstadt playing himself into a hefty raise upon his current $2.5M salary, it will be difficult for the Avalanche to keep him in the fold for the long-term future of the organization.
Heading into the offseason, Colorado will only have around $10M available in cap space with plenty of depth pieces headed for unrestricted free agency.
In Byram, the Sabres will acquire the former fourth overall selection of the 2019 NHL Draft, joining Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power on Buffalo’s blue line of former top-five selections. Still only 22 years old, Byram is in his fourth professional season, already having a Stanley Cup victory under his belt.
Limited by concussion issues in the past, Byram has put together back-to-back respectable seasons in Colorado, with a slight downtick in his production this season. Over the last two years, Byram has managed to suit up in 97 games for the Avalanche, scoring 18 goals and 44 points while averaging 20:44 of ice time per night.
Unfortunately, throughout his tenure in Colorado, Byram had to play second fiddle to the defensive pair of Cale Makar and Devon Toews and may find himself in a similar situation in Buffalo.
With the top defensive unit of Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson set in stone, the Sabres have at the very least found a viable alternative to put next to Power on the team’s second defensive pairing.
If Byram’s development process continues on an upward trajectory, there is every indication that Buffalo could deploy one of the league’s most formidable defensive cores.
With Dahlin, Samuelsson, and Power all signed to long-term contracts, the Sabres still have another year after this season to lock Byram up to a similar contract.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes was the first to report the trade.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic was the first to report that the trade was one-for-one.
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