Byram's legacy with Giants will be more than stats
Bowen Byram is bound to shoehorn his way into regular minutes with the Colorado Avalanche this season.
The Avalanche look every bit like a Stanley Cup contender, with an accomplished defence before you even get to the 19-year-old Byram, the Vancouver Giants' standout rearguard from Cranbrook who was the fourth overall choice by Colorado in the 2019 NHL draft.
Byram was the best player in the WHL playoffs two springs ago, when the Giants made it to overtime in Game 7 of the league final against the Prince Albert Raiders, and he's improved dramatically since then. He's bigger and stronger. His game is more polished.
He was a part of Colorado's taxi squad for last season's playoffs.
He made the world junior all-star team in Edmonton.
Byram is age-eligible to play two more seasons with the Giants. After watching where he was in Vancouver's 2019 playoff run and then how much better he's gotten since, it's a good bet that he's going to force Colorado to find him a spot among its blue-line corps.
Byram began practising with Colorado this weekend. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar was asked if Byram could wind up with the Giants this season during a Zoom call and initially said it was a better question for general manager Joe Sakic, what with the uncertainty around what the WHL schedule could look like and the intricacies of the NHL taxi-squad regulations.
Bednar followed that immediately with: “We certainly see him as a guy who can come in and help us win hockey games.”
The WHL plans to have a 24game regular season this year, but hasn't set a start date. In these COVID-19 times, Colorado could send Byram to their AHL Colorado Eagles affiliate until the WHL season starts. The AHL is aiming for a Feb. 5 start.
Giants coach Michael Dyck is already talking about Byram's time with Vancouver in the past tense. It's apparent that he doesn't expect the six-foot-one, 197-pound, leftshot defender back.
“He left this place in a much better spot than he found it,” said Dyck.
Byram's statistics with Vancouver have been obviously noteworthy. Byram set a Giants record for goals by a defenceman in a regular season (26) in 2018-19 and then led all WHL players in the playoffs that spring in scoring (26 points in 22 games). He's third in career regular-season scoring (150 points, 188 games) among Vancouver defenceman.
He was Vancouver's first-round pick, No. 3 overall, in the 2016 bantam draft and quickly became a part of the team's personality. He's upbeat, energetic and feverishly competitive, to the point that he would routinely celebrate goals in practice.
Byram's set a tone. He's established a standard. His fingerprints will remain on future Vancouver successes for some time.
“When you are around a guy who wants to win like that, it brings everyone else up,” said Alex Kannok Leipert, Byram's frequent defence partner with the Giants.