Sabres rumors: Buffalo continuing to gauge market for Bowen Byram

There has been a ton of noise surrounding Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram over the last couple of months — and as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier this week, that isn’t going to be silenced anytime soon.

“There’s no doubt his name is out there,” the hockey insider said on the latest episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast. “There is no doubt they are gauging market value on him. We’ll see where this takes us, but there is definitely noise around the Byram name and the Buffalo Sabres.”

Byram spent the first nearly half-decade of his career with the Colorado Avalanche, helping the team win the Stanley Cup in 2022. But after signing a two-year, $7.7 million contract extension with the team in July of 2023, he was traded to the Sabres less than a year later in exchange for forward Casey Mittelstadt.

The 23-year-old is set to become a restricted free agent on July 1, and there’s been quite a bit of speculation he will be traded out of Western New York rather than re-signed.

Byram played a full 82-game slate for the first time in 2024-25, chipping in seven goals and a career-high 38 points in that span. He averaged 22 minutes per contest and tied for third among Sabres players at plus-11.

Sabres might have too many offensive defensemen

The former fourth overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft is a strong offensive player, but Buffalo’s blue line already boasts a couple of those in former No. 1 overall picks Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.

For that reason, it wouldn’t be surprising if Byram didn’t get a new contract with the Sabres. With approximately $21.4 million in cap space to work with this summer, the franchise need to sign JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn to new contracts — the pair of forwards figure to be key pieces of the core for the foreseeable future.

It’s also expected the front office will look for additional help from outside the organization after missing the playoffs for a ridiculous 14th consecutive season. The team could certainly afford to pay Byram, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that will happen between now and July 1.

At his best, Byram is playing in the top-four and quarterbacking a man advantage unit, which just hasn’t been the case for the Cranbrook, British Columbia native in Western New York.

Despite a strong finish to the campaign, the Sabres finished 14th in the Eastern Conference in 2024-25 with a 36-39-7 record. The franchise is finding it impossible to create any kind of sustained success after yet another season without a trip to the postseason.

Buffalo hasn’t been playing hockey at the end of April since 2011, and it’s clear the patience of the fanbase is running thin. It’ll be interesting to see what moves the organization makes this summer to try to get back to legitimate playoff contention in 2025-26.