Byram set the bar high for Giants
Top NHL prospect's fiercely competitive nature and leadership skills will be his legacy
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 entire WHL playoffs two springs ago, when the Giants made it to overtime in Game 7 of the final against the Prince Albert Raiders, and he's improved dramatically since then. He's bigger and stronger. His game is more polished, more professional.
He was a part of Colorado's taxi squad for last season's playoffs. He made the world junior all-star team at the just completed tournament in Edmonton, after helping Team Canada to a silver medal.
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 a blueline corps already led by promising 22-year-old Cale Makar, who beat out Vancouver Canucks rearguard Quinn Hughes for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year last season.
Byram began practising with Colorado this weekend after completing his required quarantine following his departure from the world junior bubble in Edmonton. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar was asked Sunday if Byram could wind up with the Giants this season during a Zoom call with reporters and initially said that 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 then said: “We certainly see him as a guy who can come in and help us win hockey games.”
The WHL plans to have a 24-game regular season this year, but hasn't set a start date as yet. 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 opening night. Traditionally, a player can't be a regular at the AHL level until his 20-year-old season.
Giants coach Michael Dyck, who also coached Byram in minor hockey in Lethbridge, Alta., is already talking about Byram's time with Vancouver in the past tense. It's apparent he doesn't expect the 6-foot-1, 197 pound, left shot defender back.
Dyck is prepping for his third season at the helm of the Giants. Byram played for coach Jason McKee in his 16-year-old season with Vancouver, helping the squad make the WHL post-season for the first time in four seasons.
“He left this place in a much better spot than he found it,” said Dyck, who was with Byram as an assistant coach with Team Canada in Edmonton. “You look at the success the team had in his first year, to us making the WHL final the next year, and then being poised to make another run last season (when the campaign was shut down by COVID-19). That speaks to the heart of what he's meant (to the Giants).”
Byram's statistics with Vancouver have been noteworthy. A speedy, power-play quarterback type, 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 in 188 games) among Vancouver defenceman, trailing Jon Blum (204 points, 248 games) and Neil Manning (183 points in 310 games).
He was Vancouver's firstround pick, No. 3 overall, in the 2016 bantam draft, played his first games with the club as an underage call-up in 2016-17, and quickly became a part of the team's personality. He's upbeat and energetic and feverishly competitive. The Giants hadn't had such a player since Paul Albers in the 2005-06 season.
Byram has set a tone. He's established a standard. His fingerprints will remain on Vancouver successes going forward for some time.
“When you're 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. “He was a big driving factor, leading on and off the ice. Everyone talks about his skill and skating and all that, but ever since he started as a 15-year-old, he's been a leader. I don't think he gets enough credit for that.
“I saw the other day he was the last guy on the ice picking up pucks with Colorado. He was a big key in building that culture of always getting better, and I'm hoping what he started lives on for a long time.”
Besides Makar, Colorado's defence also includes: Samuel Girard, 22; Ryan Graves, 25; Devon Toews, 26; Ian Cole, 31; and Erik Johnson, 32. Conor Timmins, 22, is another of their top prospects on defence.