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Heading into this offseason, the Vancouver Canucks are needier than your typical three-year-old. Top-six talent—including a couple of elite two-way forwards—and reliable depth scoring would sure be nice. Oh, and maybe a couple of Sam Bennett types that can play anywhere through the lineup. It would be great to have some extra snarl on the backend, too, and, uh, many fans would say a new face at the very top of the organization wouldn’t hurt either. 

The one thing that the Canucks maybe don’t need? A left-shot puck-moving defenceman who can QB a powerplay. But there is one out there, and he is currently unhappy in his role. 

Enter Bowen Byram: a talented, B.C.-born rearguard who spent his WHL career racking up points for the Vancouver Giants. Byram was a prized prospect who was ultimately drafted fourth overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. A mix of tough injury history—including some rough concussions—and the fact that Colorado’s depth chart on defence was stacked in front of him with capable left-shot defencemen Devon Toews and Sam Girard (not to mention powerplay master Cale Makar). 

After winning the Stanley Cup with Colorado (and performing pretty well when he wasn’t on IR), Byram was sent to the Buffalo Sabres for centre Casey Mittelstadt as the Avs tried to trade a strength for a weakness. Once again, Byram found himself behind two left-shot defencemen (Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power) on the depth chart. Once again, he acquitted himself well, with 38 points in 82 games last year. 

News came after the season ended, however, that Byram had requested a trade from the Sabres. Then came reports that he actually would like to become a Canuck. 

The Canucks, of course, have Quinn Hughes (for now, anyway), as well as Marcus Pettersson on the left-side of the defence core. Elias Pettersson (the defenceman) also seems on his way to full-time NHL minutes. Maybe it’s a long-term play if the Canucks know (as many expect) that Hughes is New Jersey-bound the second he gets a chance. 

For all of Byram’s exceptional counting stats and how competent he looks on the ice, there is an issue: his underlying numbers are… troubling. 

Could he be the next Brandon Montour, an offensive playmaker who rounds out his game once he leaves Buffalo, as speculated in the above link? Yeah, possibly. Could he also just not be good enough defensively and get banished to third-pair ice time and the occasional powerplay cameo? Again, possible. 

The reality is that acquiring Byram at this point in time doesn’t make much sense for the Canucks. He did show he could play on his off-side with Dahlin in Buffalo, but analytic reports show that in his time away from the Sabres’ stud d-man, Byram was crunched. Could him an Pettersson make a strong D-pairing that supports each others strengths? Yeah, potentially. I for one wouldn’t hate seeing that. 

But given that a player of Byram’s type won’t be at the top (or anywhere close) of the Canucks’ shopping list, it’s hard to see a viable trade. Buffalo will want a good haul, likely one that includes a young player or two that is ready to contribute now. 

Let’s fire up the (completely made-up) Trade Generator and ask a couple sources. 

First, let’s get ChatGPT to weigh in. We asked it to create a fair trade for both sides that would send Byram to the Canucks. 

ChatGPT: 

To Vancouver Canucks:

Bowen Byram (LD)

To Buffalo Sabres:

Vasily Podkolzin (RW, 23 y/o — power forward with upside)

2025 2nd-round pick

Elias Pettersson (D) or Akito Hirose

Well, that won’t work, mostly because Vasily Podkolzin hasn’t been on the Canucks for a year. 

Buffalo Sabres Reddit:

An interesting proposal here from user idislikehate:

Byram/[forward Jack] Quinn/something else for [Filip] Hronek/ [Conor] Garland. Garland is a bit smaller than we might want but a defensively responsible forward. Also building some chemistry with Tage [Thompson] on team USA and has allegedly had some level of availability in Vancouver.

I… don’t hate it? Jack Quinn is a young phenom who seems ready to break out. The issue is that the Canucks definitely don’t seem at all willing to part with Hronek. He’s also far and away their best right-shot defenceman. Again, the conditions here just don’t seem right for a swap. 

Vancouver Canucks Reddit: 

Not much here, as pretty much everyone agrees that Byram doesn’t make sense for this team as long as Hughes is on it (and that’s a Trade Generator column for another day). 

There doesn’t seem to be a way for this to happen right now, under the current conditions. But things could always change in a hurry, and if they do, look out. 

We could easily see the Canucks being players in the mix for another Sabre, restricted free agent JJ Peterka. Maybe that’s something that comes to fruition in a larger deal that includes Byram. Time will tell.