Giants give blueliner a needed breather
Sent home to Cranbrook for a rest, Byram expected in lineup to face Chiefs on Friday
The Vancouver Giants have built in a breather for Bowen Byram.
The Giants gave their star defenceman free days off from practice this week and sent him home to Cranbrook. He’s expected to rejoin the squad in time for their visit to the Spokane Chiefs on Friday.
It’s not your standard operating procedure, but Byram has been going non-stop for the past two seasons.
He helped the Giants to the 2017-18 WHL playoffs, where they lost in the first round to the Victoria Royals. He then suited up for Team Canada at the under-18 world championships in Russia that April and again was part of the Team Canada entry at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Red Deer and Edmonton that August.
That spun directly into last season for the Giants. Vancouver went to the WHL championship series in May, and Byram followed it immediately with the NHL Draft hoopla, en route to being selected fourth overall by the Colorado Avalanche in June at Rogers Arena.
In the midst of getting in sync with the Avalanche, Byram also had the Team Canada world junior summer development camp in Plymouth, Mich., in late July.
This season’s world juniors are in the Czech Republic, starting Boxing Day, and Byram is a favourite to be a member of Team Canada. Selection camp runs Dec. 9-12 in Oakville, Ont.
If you thinking about a Christmas gift for Byram, may we suggest a high-end calendar app?
Or maybe an extra-large package of sticky notes he can write his upcoming duties on and plaster on a wall somewhere?
“He really hasn’t had any time with his family, he hasn’t had any down time,” Giants coach Michael Dyck said. “I think the value of rest cannot be understated and it’s more mental than physical.”
Added defenceman Alex Kannok
Leipert, “He never stops working. You have to push him to get out of the gym, you have to tell him to get off the ice after practice.
“He needs it (the break).” Oddly enough, Byram put together maybe his two best games of the season last week, looking like he had energy galore in a 3-1 loss on the road to the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday and in a 5-4 overtime win at home versus the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday.
“I think it was because he knew there was a break coming,” Dyck explained.
The Giants play their Teddy Bear Toss game on Dec. 8 at Rogers Arena, taking on the Tri-City Americans. The plan is that Byram plays in that and flies out the next morning for Oakville.
The world juniors end Jan. 5. Assuming Byram makes Team Canada, he’d miss at least eight Giants games — Dec. 14 at Everett, Dec. 17 home to Prince George, Dec. 18 at Kelowna, Dec. 27 at Victoria, Dec. 28 home to Kelowna, Jan. 1 home to Victoria, Jan. 3 at Kamloops and Jan. 4 at Kelowna.
What Byram means on the ice to the Giants is well-documented. He’s also a considerable part of the club’s personality. He sets a tone with his work ethic.
Byram being away for a few days this week also starts to get the group accustomed to what it would be like without him in that regard.
“We’ll test it out. We’ll see how we can fill holes with the energy,” said Giants captain Kannok Leipert.
Assuming Byram sticks with Team Canada, associate coach Jamie Heward — who runs the defence for Dyck — will also have to find a way to make up for the 25-plus minutes that Byram logs a game.
It would be spread out among the team’s remaining six defencemen rather than having one guy try to eat it all up, one would think.
Dylan Plouffe, 20, logs similar ice time per game to Byram, but he’d pick up a shift or two on the power play.
There’d be more playing time for fellow veterans Kannok Leipert, 19, and Seth Barfaro, 19, as well as newcomer Connor Horning, 18, who Vancouver landed this week from the Swift Current Broncos in a swap for defenceman Kaleb Bulych, 19.
As well, youngsters Jacob Gendron, 17, and Tanner Brown, 17, would see their ice time spike. Brown has suited up for 21 games this season, but the majority of his shifts have been played at forward.
Vancouver released defenceman Nic Draffin, 18, earlier this week. He had played 17 games this season, but had been used mainly as a winger. The Giants added to their forward pack last week by signing one-time Winterhawk Michal Kvasnica, 19, from a Czech team and bringing in former Seattle Thunderbird Holden Katzalay, 19, from the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles on a three-game trial.