With multiple insiders, such as Rick Dhaliwal and Elliotte Friedman, reporting that the Vancouver Canucks have interest in the Buffalo Sabres defenceman Bowen Byram, it would be prudent to look at what it cost in recent past trades for similar young defencemen.
There are seven trades of defencemen that were of similar age and value over the past 10 seasons. Using these comparables, it should be possible to put together a trade package from the Canucks that fits the historical cost.
Now, let’s examine all the past trades and try to find some common ground between Byram and the other traded defenceman to formulate a realistic trade scenario.
Traits of Bowen Byram
  • 6’1″, 205lbs
  • 196 career games
  • 90 points
  • Stanley Cup success
  • Left-shot defenceman
  • 23 years old
  • Traded last season in a one-on-one trade for a centre
  • RFA at season’s end
  • Former lottery pick

Comparable Trades

*All stats are at the time the player was traded.
Nick Leddy & Kent Simpson for T.J. Brennan, Ville Pokka, & Anders Nilsson
Acquiring Team: New York Islanders
Trading Team: Chicago Blackhawks
Traded in the 2014 off-season
  • 6’0″, 205lbs
  • 258 career games
  • 93 points
  • Stanley Cup success
  • Left-shot defenceman
  • 23 years old
  • Signing rights traded from Minnesota Wild to Blackhawks
  • One season under contract, then RFA
  • 16th overall draft pick
  • Why Was He Traded: At that point in his career, he was mostly used as a third-pairing and second-unit power play defenceman. Blackhawks were $1.2M over the salary cap at the time of the trade
Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen
Acquiring Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
Trading Team: Nashville Predators
Traded during 2015-16 season
  • 6’4″, 213lbs
  • 199 career games
  • 63 points
  • 6 playoff games
  • Right-shot defenceman
  • 20 years old
  • Had not been traded before
  • RFA at season’s end
  • Former lottery pick
  • Why Was He Traded: Predators were looking for a number one centre. Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, and Ryan Ellis were all in their mid-20s, making defence a position of strength for the Predators
Erik Gudbranson and a fifth for Jared McCann a second and a fourth
Acquiring Team: Vancouver Canucks
Trading Team: Florida Panthers
Traded in the 2016 off-season
  • 6’5″, 222lbs
  • 309 career games
  • 43 points
  • 13 playoff games
  • Right-shot defenceman
  • 24 years old
  • Had not been traded
  • One season under contract, then RFA
  • Former lottery pick
  • Why Was He Traded: Despite an impressive physique, Gudbranson had to be consistently carried by his partner
Jacob Trouba for Neal Pionk and a first
Acquiring Team: New York Rangers
Trading Team: Winnipeg Jets
Traded in the 2019 off-season
  • 6’3″, 212lbs
  • 408 career games
  • 179 points
  • 27 playoff games
  • Right-shot defenceman
  • 25 years old
  • Had not been traded
  • RFA at the time of trade
  • Ninth overall pick
  • Why Was He Traded: Had informed the Jets he would not be signing there
Alexander Romanov and a fourth for a first
Acquiring Team: New York Islanders
Trading Team: Montreal Canadiens
Traded in 2022 off-season
  • 6’1″, 220lbs
  • 133 career games
  • 19 points
  • Four playoff games
  • Left-shot defenceman
  • 22 years old
  • Had not been traded
  • RFA at the time of trade
  • Second round pick
  • Why Was He Traded: The Canadiens wanted to focus on their centre depth and quickly traded the first they got for Romanov to the Blackhawks for large centre Kirby Dach
Filip Hronek and a fourth for a first and second
Acquiring Team: Vancouver Canucks
Trading Team: Detroit Red Wings
Traded during the 2022-23 season
  • 6’0″, 190lbs
  • 305 games
  • 156 points
  • No playoff experience
  • Right-shot defenceman
  • 24 years old
  • Played four games then was placed on injured reserve. Had one additional season under contract before RFA
  • Second round pick
  • Why He Was Traded: Red Wings did not feel he matched, age-wise, with their younger defensive prospects, and they felt his counting stats would inflate his next contract beyond what they were comfortable paying
Jakob Chychrun for a first, second and second
Acquiring Team: Ottawa Senators
Trading Team: Arizona Coyotes
Traded during the 2022-23 season
  • 6’2″, 205lbs
  • 373 games
  • 170 points
  • Nine playoff games
  • Left-shot defenceman
  • 24 years old
  • UFA in two seasons
  • 16th overall draft pick
  • Why He Was Traded: He had asked to be traded. Coyotes were no longer playing in an NHL rink, and the team was starting to get banned from hotels around North America for not paying invoices

Canucks Trade Assets:

Forwards:
Nils Höglander
Max Sasson
Arshdeep Bains
Aatu Räty
Linus Karlsson
Nils Åman
Jonathan Lekkerimäki
Vilmer Alriksson
Defencemen:
Vincent Desharnais
Elias Pettersson
Kirill Kudryavtsev
Cole McWard
Sawyer Mynio
Tom Willander
Goalies:
Arturs Silovs
Nikita Tolopilo
Draft Picks:
2025: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th
2026: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th
2027: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th
With all this in mind, here is what would be a comparable trade to some we’ve seen in the past with some of these Canucks assets.

The Trade Proposal

Bowen Byram & fourth-round pick (2025) for Nils Höglander, first (2025) and second-round pick (2026)
In all these trades, four first and second-round picks were traded, one fourth-round pick, a decent prospect in Ville Pokka, three young NHL players, and two throw-ins were acquired by the team trading away the defenceman. No team had to give one of their top prospects in a deal for any of these players.
Neal Pionk was seen as a promising young player, but his sudden evolution into a top-four defenceman the moment he got to Winnipeg was unexpected. Jared McCann had endured a difficult rookie season in Vancouver, where he was in over his head and seen as arrogant by management. However, around the league, he was viewed as a very good prospect who should have been in junior. It wasn’t until the expansion Seattle Kraken gave him an opportunity as their go-to offensive weapon that he broke out six seasons later.
If a young NHL player is involved, we’re looking for someone with good upside but who is also flawed. A first-round pick is almost certainly included.
Of those the Canucks can offer, Nils Höglander makes the most sense as the young player. Notice that none of the trades above included a package of a first and a young player. However, Höglander plays a less valuable position than the other players traded (McCann was still a centre at the time of his trade), and his size limits his appeal. The 5’9″ 185-lbs winger is currently mired in an ugly scoring slump and has struggled to get more than 10-minutes of ice time per game.
Höglander and a second-round pick feel very light. The earlier a trade occurs in season, the more the acquiring team has to pay. Assuming this transaction – in typical Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin fashion – takes place well before the trade deadline, there would need to be an additional sweetener. At the same time, Höglander, a first and second, would be the most given up of all these trades where draft picks are involved.
The two methods around this are to do what the Canucks and Islanders did in the Filip Hronek and Alexander Romanov trades. The two teams attached a fourth-round pick to the incoming player or downgraded the second-round draft pick. The first approach is quite popular in these trades, as witnessed by the Gudbranson, Romanov, and Hronek trades, so that is the method we will use.
Risks Associated With Byram:
Acquiring Byram is not without risks. He has a lengthy concussion history, which should give any team pause. He’s also a restricted free agent after this season. Elliotte Friedman reported on his 32 Thoughts – The Podcast that he believes Bowen Byram wants an opportunity to be a team’s number one defenceman.
With the Canucks, he would be slated to drive his own pairing but wouldn’t get primary unit power play time nor on the ice in the final moments of a game. The long-term viability from both a health and contract perspective would need to be something that the Canucks could make a decision on via information that is not publicly available.
Regarding Byram’s next contract, he is not due to become an unrestricted free agent until the summer of 2028. There are three more seasons of team control upon the completion of his current contract. The closest comparable contracts signed this offseason are Sean Durzi (four years/$6M), Moritz Seider (seven years/$8.55M), and Filip Hronek (eight years/$7.25M).
Durzi and Hronek were older than Byram upon signing their contracts, while Seider was younger but is the number one defenceman for the Red Wings. With the salary cap due to take several successive jumps after this season, it would not be a surprise to see Byram’s next contract end up being similar to Filip Hronek’s. Another option would be to sign him to a two-year bridge contract that leaves one season of RFA eligibility (like what Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson received). If that were the case, the cap hit would probably fall around the $5M mark.
Currently, the Canucks have around $15.87M in projected cap space for next season with a $92.4M salary cap and 16/23 roster spots, according to PuckPedia.
Centres:
JT Miller, Elias Pettersson, & Teddy Blueger
Wingers:
Jake DeBrusk, Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua, Danton Heinen, Kiefer Sherwood, & Nils Hoglander
Defencemen:
Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Carson Soucy, Tyler Myers, & Vincent Desharnais
Goalies:
Thatcher Demko & Arturs Silovs
RFAs:
Max Sasson & Erik Brannstrom
UFAs:
Brock Boeser, Pius Suter, Derek Forbort, Noah Juulsen, & Kevin Lankinen
If the Canucks can move out Höglander and Desharnais’ contracts without taking on incoming salary, that would push next season’s projected cap space to $20.87M on a 14/23 roster. Fitting Byram into next season’s roster with a contract between $5M-$7.5M average annual value (AAV) is doable. It would leave around $14M to fill eight roster spots and very little room to keep Boeser on the team.
But why would the Sabres do this?
The Sabres are in the midst of another massively disappointing season. This team doesn’t have a win in December and is currently on a 12-game losing streak that has seen them compile a record of 0-9-3. The last thing the Sabres need is another small winger who has struggled to score and a bunch of draft picks. Unless Sabres’ General Manager Kevyn Adams is confident he can then turn draft picks into another play – as the Canucks did by turning part of the Bo Horvat return into Filip Hrone – a deal based around futures makes little sense for the Sabres.
Byram was traded one-for-one for Casey Mittelstadt last season, so it’s an organization that has already avoided trading a young asset for futures. However, do not discount a desperate General Manager from making a move that defies conventional reasoning in an effort to save his job. Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams has recently been given the kiss-of-death vote-of-confidence from Sabres owner Terry Pegula to compound matters.
Using indisputable evidence and rigorous research, we have concocted a surefire trade proposal that neither Kevyn Adams nor Patrik Allvin would reject. It’s just science. Or it’s a massive flop of an idea that leaves no one happy.
What do you think, Canucks fans? Where do you Canucks fans fall on this trade proposal?
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