Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Steve Kouleas and Bruce Boudreau on Sirius XM NHL Network Power Play Segment on Friday. He was asked about Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram, why he wants to leave, and the teams looking to acquire him.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Steve Kouleas: “Oh, yes, it’s been a great year. It’s not over yet. For the final time of the 2025 campaign, one of the best in the business, Sirius XM, Fourth Period, and NHL Network Television. We welcome Dave Pagnotta back to the power play. Dave, what’s going on with Bo Byram? There’s a lot of smoke. Is there a fire? Welcome.”
Dave Pagnotta: “Thanks, Kooli. I hope so. There’s, like you said, a lot of smoke surrounding this. There’s been a lot of talk. Kevyn Adams and the crew in Buffalo have been navigating the trade waters involving Bowen Byram. A number of teams have been poking around trying to see if they can make something work. LA, San Jose, Calgary, and so on. It seems like St. Louis is still very much in the mix. It sounded like, like things were starting to inch closer towards something with the Blues, and obviously we’re still waiting, but conversations continue.
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The expectation right now is, barring a total setback, that the plan is to kind of move him, and they’ve got to figure out the best return, because the Sabres don’t want to regress. They don’t want to be dealing for futures. They want to add to their roster and enhance their roster. And maybe it’s utilizing some of those few assets in another deal to bring in some people that are going to help this team right away. But they’re, they’re obviously kind of navigating everything and trying to cover all their bases here to maintain a higher level of compete going into next season.”
Bruce Boudreau: “Dave, it’s Bruce Boudreau here. I might sound really naive here, but why do they want to move him?”
Pagnotta: “I don’t think, well, Bruce, they don’t want to. They prefer to keep him but, but similar to J.J. Peterka, it seems like, well, it’s a combination in his case. But with J.J. Peterka, it certainly seemed like he wanted a change of scenery. Was pretty adamant about that. It sounds like that’s a big factor here, involving Byram. The other is the contract that’s got to come along with it.
He’s been asking for a pretty penny. $8-$9 million, maybe a little bit more, depending on the term, over his deal. So I think a combination of that, they brought in Michael Kesselring in that Peterka trade to help kind of solidify that D-corps. They’re really looking to not just replace Peterka, but also enhance their top six, and Byram seems to be the, that carrot that they’re dangling in order to acquire it.
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A perfect world, they want to keep him, but it certainly looks like, similar to Peterka, the writing is kind of on the wall in terms of them eventually moving him.”
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