It's still early, very early, but Bowen Byram isn't yet making the Buffalo Sabres regret trading him to the Chicago Blackhawks.
It was a headline-grabbing move in the offseason when the Sabres sent Byram, who had starred as a defenseman in Buffalo's return to the playoffs, to the Blackhawks.
So far, Byram hasn't been grabbing any headlines for his play on the ice.
In fact, Byram has been pretty tough to notice, except for the scuffle he got himself in on Thursday night in helping to defend teammate Frank Nazar.
Byram is a puck-moving, play-making defenseman, but that hasn't been happening much at all so far.
Byram has now played four games with Chicago — an admittedly very small sample size.
In those four games, Byram has scored zero goals.
He has dished out zero assists.
He is a minus-5.
And then there's an advanced stat worth considering. The xGF% stat measures what percentage of the expected goals happen for a given player while he's on the ice. Essentially, if a player was 50% in that stat, it would mean the chances are totally even when they're playing. You'd expect a strong offensive player to be above 50-50.
Byram so far this season in xGF% when playing at 5-on-5 is just a 33.03%. The opposition is crushing the Blackhawks when Byram is on the ice.
Chicago isn't at full strength, particularly with the absence of captain Connor Bedard, but that shouldn't necessarily be stifling Byram's chances of making an impact. If anything, he becomes more important, but that's not yet working out for him so far.
The big piece the Sabres acquired in return in the Byram trade was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
They used that to select young defenseman Daxon Rudolph, who is playing for the University of Denver and currently leads all D-men in points at the NCAA level despite just being a freshman. He has a quick goal and four assists to start the season there.
The deal also sent Jordan Greenway to the Blackhawks, and the physical Greenway has actually gotten off to a better start than Byram in Chicago, but he was more replaceable for Buffalo.
The Sabres also got the 45th pick from Chicago, and they traded that with young center Anton Wahlberg to get defenseman Olen Zellweger from Anaheim, which gave them pretty much an immediate replacement for Byram.
The Blackhawks also traded defenseman Louis Crevier in return in the Byram deal, and Buffalo liked him so much that before the season even started, they already signed him to a contract extension.
The Sabres likely feel they did quite well in this trade, and there's a lot of time for it to look even better.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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