Blues Pushing For Bowen Byram Trade

The St. Louis Blues are set on continuing their overhaul this season. On the heels of announcing a new logo, trading a top rookie, and waiving a long-term veteran – the Blues are now aggressively pushing to acquire Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram, per Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. Rutherford adds that Byram is still a candidate to be offer-sheeted by one of many teams, but St. Louis would not be among those teams. They would have to trade for Byram, since they don’t have the draft capital to match an offer sheet.

Acquiring the former fourth-overall pick would be St. Louis’  biggest move since they kicked off the wave of offer-sheets by acquiring Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg last summer. Byram spent the 2024-25 season closely tied to star Sabres defender Rasmus Dahlin. With his help, Byram was able to reach a career-high 38 points in 82 games – while averaging a career-high 22:42 in ice time each game.

The role in Buffalo was the biggest of Byram’s career, and a hardy step up from the 21 minutes a night he averaged with the Colorado Avalanche in the 2022-23 season. He recorded 24 points in 42 games that year, then followed it up with 29 points in 73 games split between Colorado and Buffalo last season.

Byram has managed an impressive 246 NHL games before the age of 25. He’s managed multiple seasons in top-line roles, on the back of high acclaim in his draft year. And yet, the instinctive offensive-defenseman has yet to manage a season with more than 40 points. He was a glowing defense partner for Dahlin — with the two managing a plus-15 goal differential in their minutes together — but struggled significantly away from the star padding — with a minus-22 goal-differential without Dahlin.

Those marks could spell reason for pessimism around the young defender. But of the many teams interested in striking a deal with Buffalo, the Blues may be the ones with the best role available for Byram. They recently lost their top left-defender in Torey Krug, who missed the entirety of last season with an ankle injury. Broberg admirably filled the top role in Krug’s absence, but only managed 29 points in 68 games on the full season. A move to St. Louis would push Byram into a direct competition with Broberg for top-pair minutes. Byram’s offensive instinct would be what wins him ice time in that battle – though losing out would mean a second-line role next to longtime pro Colton Parayko, while Justin Faulk mans the top role.

The…