I still am going to beat the Byram drum.
23 years old, 4OA, already won a Cup and played great in the post season, has been healthy the past two seasons, no concussions in 4 years. This is when non-Makar level generational D breakout. Fox was like 23 his first year here. Byram may be a #3 right now (he played 82 games averaging over 22 minutes last year, but on a poor team) but he very clearly has top pair potential. I’m just not seeing a world where you are going to convince me that giving Gavrikov 7x8M when he’ll be 30 at the start of the year is a better decision than going after Byram and giving him 7x7 when he’ll be 24 at the start of the year.
Yes, I understand we also would have to pay to acquire him. Everyone knows Buffalo is shopping him, he’s an RFA, doesn’t really want to sign with them long term and they have Power and Dahlin, two #1 OAs. Adams isn’t a great GM either and he doesn’t have lots of leverage. I would rather move the 1st this year for a 24 year old Byram than draft a mid first player in a weak draft who will be helping us when Miller and Zib are 35, Fox is 30 and Shesterkin is 32. Who says the price is Schneider. Maybe Buffalo takes the pick, packages with their 9OA and moves into the top 5 to get a player they like. Maybe Laf + gets a package where we can get Byram and McLeod or Peterka. I’m not going to pretend I know what the deal could look like, but it is definitely a player I would be calling about if I was Drury.