The last time the Buffalo Sabres made it to the NHL playoffs, the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights did not even exist, the Arizona Coyotes were still the Arizona Coyotes and the Atlanta Thrashers were in their final season in Atlanta.
That was 14 years ago. Since then, the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and became a new incarnation of the Jets, 15 years after the original Winnipeg Jets moved to Arizona to become the Coyotes.
The Coyotes have now moved on to Utah, where as of May 7 they are called the Mammoth. And Vegas won a Stanley Cup.
As for Seattle, the Kraken have been playing since 2021, with one playoff appearance to show for it. Their main accomplishment has simply been to bring hockey back to the city whose team, then called the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, became the first American-based club to win the Stanley Cup â way back in 1917.
Meanwhile, the Sabres, who were part of the second NHL expansion in 1970, have been languishing in futility, mired in a seemingly endless “rebuild.” Buffalo has not played a single playoff game since April 26, 2011, when they lost game seven of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Rising Buffalo Defenseman Wants Out
It should come as little surprise then that one of Buffalo’s brightest young stars now appears to want nothing more than out. His sudden desire to move on could lead to a trade that would, at least in theory, help the rebuilding process of both teams get on track.
Despite saying after the Sabres’ season ended that he could “for sure” see himself staying in Buffalo long-term, 23-year-old defenseman Bowen Byram reportedly then packed up everything in his Buffalo house and vanished from the city.
According to Craig Rivet, a former NHL â and Buffalo â player who now hosts the After the Whistle podcast, “his whole family came in and moved him out. I strongly believe that Bowen Byram is moved.â
Byram is now a restricted free agent, after finishing his two-year, $7.7 million contract with the Sabres. That means the team can either resign him, probably at an increased cost, or trade him. Given that the Cranbrook, British Columbia, native seems to have abandoned the city, trading him would be the more viable option.
But where would Byram end up?
Blockbuster Swap Nets Sabres Rebuilding Blocks
According to a trade proposal posted to the PuckPedia PuckGM site â kind of a clearinghouse for trade ideas assembled by fans â the defenseman would go to one of those teams that was not yet in existence the last time the Sabres played in the postseason, the Utah Mammoth.
In the proposed trade the Mammoth pick up a younger replacement for 36-year-old defenseman Ian Cole who would be one of two players exiled to Buffalo in the deal. At the same time, the move would benefit Byram who would be able to move into the No. 2 defenseman role he felt he had earned with the Sabres, who consigned him to the third tier behind Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.
But Byram clearly has value. As Michael DeRosa of The Hockey News wrote, “the 2019 fourth-overall pick has had a solid season for the Sabres… he has played top-pairing minutes and sees time on both their power play and penalty kill.”
Also headed to Buffalo, 25-year-old center Jack McBain, another restricted free agent, described by Mike Guild of the Daily Faceoff as an “impact player in the making.”
His impact is clear. In 2023, McBain led the Coyotes in hits with 304. This season, with the Utah Hockey Club (now Mammoth), McBain continued his physical play with 291 hits. That’s 40 percent more than the Sabres’ leader in hits, defenseman Connor Clifton who registered 208.
But the real core of the proposed trade, the piece that would serve as building blocks for the Sabres rebuild, would be the haul of draft picks the team would pick up from Utah in exchange for Byram and 2025 fourth-rounder â a package that helps Utah’s rebuild along as well.
In the hypothetical deal, Buffalo receives the Mammoth’s second round pick in 2026 and 2028, as well as Utah’s third round selection in this year’s draft.
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