Sabres acquire Byram from Avalanche

The Buffalo Sabres have acquired defenseman Bowen Byram from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for forward Casey Mittelstadt, the team announced Wednesday.

Byram, 22, has 20 points (8+12) in 55 games this season while averaging 19:51 of ice time.

The fourth-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Byram has 63 points (23+40) in 146 career regular-season games. He has 12 assists in 27 career playoff games, 20 of which came during Colorado’s run to the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Byram joins a Sabres defense corps that currently includes five other players under the age of 25 in Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju, and Ryan Johnson – all of whom were selected in the top 32 of their respective draft classes.

Prior to his NHL career, Byram won a gold medal with Canada at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship, where he was teammates with current Sabres forward Dylan Cozens. He captained Canada to a silver medal the following year on a team that also included Cozens, Peyton Krebs, and Jack Quinn.