This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Bowen Byram
Buffalo Sabres Defense
Eleven goals from the blue line at twenty-three, a Stanley Cup already, and traded for a point-a-game centre.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | COL | 19 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +1 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0.0 | 17:31 |
| 2021-22 | COL | 30 | 5 | 12 | 17 | +7 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 49 | 10.2 | 18:48 |
| 2022-23 | COL | 42 | 10 | 14 | 24 | +7 | 38 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 65 | 15.4 | 21:53 |
| 2023-24 | COL/BUF | 73 | 11 | 18 | 29 | 0 | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 84 | 13.1 | 20:21 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 164 | 26 | 46 | 72 | +15 | 126 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 219 | 11.9 | 20:08 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
11 goals and 18 assists in 73 games for Colorado and Buffalo — 29 points at 20:21 a night, even, on 84 shots, converting at 13.1 per cent, with 53 penalty minutes.
Eleven goals on eighty-four shots is an extraordinary conversion rate for a defenceman and it is not going to repeat; 26 goals in 164 career games says the shot is real and 13.1 per cent is not.
47.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,318 minutes, the 30th percentile. His ice went 49-45 against an expectation of 50.66-57.15 — twelve fewer goals conceded than the chances predicted.
The Finesse Game
84 attempts at a median of 45 feet, with 58 per cent from beyond 40 and 11 per cent from inside 20.
The skating is the top end of this blue line and it is the whole player — he escapes a forecheck by turning away from it, and the first three strides out of his own zone are the fastest on the roster. He carries the puck out and gains the offensive line under control.
18 assists. The distribution is good rather than exceptional; what separates him is that he does not need a pass to leave his own end.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 205. He defends with feet and stick and he will not clear a crease against a heavy forward.
53 penalty minutes in 73 games is a moderate rate, and a share of it is the stick foul that follows losing a step — which for a skater this good happens less often than it does to most.
The Intangibles
Fourth overall in 2019 by Colorado, a Stanley Cup at 21, and then a series of concussions and a trade to Buffalo for Casey Mittelstadt in March.
He is 23. A fourth-overall defenceman with a Cup ring arriving at 23 for a point-a-game centre is either the best piece of business this club has done in a decade or the reason the middle of the ice is thin, and the answer depends entirely on whether the head holds up.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,318 minutes
- Expected goals
- 47%
- 30th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.3%
- 48th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 49 for, 45 against. Expected: 50.7 and 57.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 45 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 with COL · 990 minutes at five-on-five
- Josh Manson23%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- BUF took 48.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 47.0% — 1.9 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 1,318 minutes at five-on-five — 90th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles Wood | 47.7% | 46.8% | 50.8% |
| Mikko Rantanen | 48.8% | 46.5% | 56.6% |
| Ryan Johansen | 42.8% | 48.0% | 51.3% |
47.7% together, 46.8% for him apart and 50.8% for Wood apart. Wood was better away from him while his own share held, which is a mark against him more than for him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
122 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 11 of them goals. His median goal came from 29 feet. 11% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 58% from beyond forty.