and that's exactly why I thought the Toews extension affected Byram's play before the trade. He was seeing himself on the first pair next to Makar and CMac threw a wrench into that plan.
The train has already left. We have already traded our next Captain.
There's quite a few teams he at least would get the opportunity or see a path to it, and realistically I think that's all he wants. A place where he could develop into the a top pairing/top PP role. Right now the pecking order in Buffalo is clearly Dahlin > Powers/Byram now and in the future.
On which teams is this even a possibility? Which teams is Byram thrown in as the number 1?
He just needs to find bad enough team(no good #1) who pays enough and it's done.
I don't think Lou's been fired either, but I do believe there are times he should have been.
Personally, I think Bo is still too high on himself to reach his potential.
I mean I don't really see Bo forcing anyones hand to be the 1 in Florida, Carolina, Boston, LA. Maybe LA. But Byram would clearly be stuck behind Slavin, Forsling, and McAvoy. Even in Calgary Weeger is currently better than him and would be an obstacle. He could have a path to being a 1 in TOR but there's a good chance he'd just end up a worse version of Rielly. Until Bo actually either becomes a legit point producer or consistently good defender in the NHL no one will trust him to be a top pairing guy consistently.
I think that's the big thing. Even if he goes to say Chicago, Levshunov is expected to be their long term 1. So there's a good chance his 1D role would get usurped there. Like even most of the bad teams have players that are currently better than him in a 1D role or project as just outright better players than he is right now.
He has all the talent to be even better. Hell for a brief time when needed, he was. He played marvelously for us during the run. I'm just hoping that as he ages and matures he'll find that consistency we really wanted to see from him or at least a much highler low-end. I think he'll get there and would not bet against him. But man, we really needed a 2C and while Mitts is struggling, I still think it was absolutely the right call at the time (my biggest gripe is that the 2C situation hadn't been solved sooner).
His biggest issue is that he's not productive enough to outweigh his defensive shortcomings. He absolutely has the talent to be a good defensive player in this league, but until he actually commits to playing that way he will always be a frustrating player.
If Byram had done anything to show he could surpass Toews then perhaps Toews doesn't get that contract.
Bo would absolutely be the go-to go for most of those teams. That doesn't mean he's the best defenseman on the team. He wants the role of a Montour/Hughes/etc. where he's #1-3 in ice time, majority of offensive zone deployment and top PP unit. He wants to be on the ice in important situations.
