A full season with a new team, new coach and new mentality can do wonders for a player. For defenseman Bowen Byram, joining the Buffalo Sabres, specifically under head coach Lindy Ruff, could be just the jump start the promising young talent needs. Given Ruff's experience with defensemen, especially those he coached with the Colorado Avalanche, it seems like Byram has a good chance of thriving.
Ryan Graves is a big, hard-shooting defenseman who began his career in the New York Rangers organization. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, where he played his first NHL game. His second full season with Colorado was his best, playing frequently alongside 21-year-old superstar Cale Makar.
So what does this have to do with Bowen Byram? After three seasons with the Avalanche, he was dealt to the New Jersey Devils in an expansion draft roster reshuffle. Graves' two seasons in New Jersey under head coach Lindy Ruff were his best with any team. After moving to Pittsburgh, his production plummeted last season, leaving uncertainty about his role in the Penguins defense.
Looking at how Graves has performed, there are some similarities to Byram, so let's break down how Ruff and his coaching staff could have created an environment for Byram to succeed based on his utilization and playing style.
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Byram and Graves parallels
To be clear, Bowen Byram and Ryan Graves are not the same defenseman. Graves is a big, strong, mobile defenseman who was a fourth-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft. Byram is a top-tier prospect who was also a fourth-round pick. whole In 2019, he won the championship thanks to his exceptional skating and offensive power.
The restrictions allow Graves to be deployed as a support player on a top-four defenseman pairing while Byram can be the primary player. The two faced off against each other in Colorado in 2020-2021, with Graves losing ice time to rookie Devon Toews and Byram cracking the lineup in a lower-pairing role.
The Colorado defense features man-to-man defensive zone coverage. Most NHL teams use some form of zone coverage to keep their defensemen from chasing the puck carrier to the blue line. The Avalanche prefer to use their speed and skating to their advantage to chase the puck carrier and force the chased player to make a play.
In addition to Colorado's system, both defensemen are also good shooters, and while Byram is a more selective shooter and scores at a higher rate than Graves, their shooting ability is the highlight of their arsenal.
How Rahu used the tomb
Graves was traded to the Devils for the 2021-2022 season after a terrible season with the Avalanche, and he bounced back quickly, ranking just 0.8 points above replacement in Colorado but 1.9 points above replacement in New Jersey, according to Evolving Hockey.
Graves' second year under Coach Ruff was the best season of his career, finishing 3.4 points above replacement, and while providing an even-strength attack is where he shines, his numbers also rose with the cut in payroll for the 2022-2023 season.
how to use
Coach Ruff leaned heavily on Graves, using him on the top pair, and the big defenseman's minutes went from 19 minutes per game in Colorado to 21 in New Jersey. When Ruff cut Graves' minutes back a bit in his second season with the Devils, his production soared.
So was the issue minutes? What else could Ruff have done to get the most out of Graves?
Quality of competition
It certainly wasn't about protecting the blue line. Graves' quality of competition has improved greatly with the Devils. He was the team's primary shutdown defenseman in his first season in New Jersey. In 2022-2023, he shared those roles with breakout player Jonas Siegenthaler.
Quality of teammates
His primary defensive partners with the Devils were Dougie Hamilton and Damon Severson, who were by no means weak players, but then again, Cale Makar was no different, and the overall quality of his teammates in New Jersey didn't really give Ruff the right players to play with.
Of course, that would have been a tough task, as the Avalanche had an incredibly talented roster.
Zone Start
Simply put, Ruff made Graves a defensive defenseman. At Colorado, Graves averaged about 10% of starts in the defensive zone and 33% of faceoffs in the D-zone. Under Ruff, that increased to 14% of defensive zone starts and 36% of defensive zone faceoffs.
Compare that to New Jersey’s 9% of offensive zone starts and 28.5% of faceoffs in the offensive zone, and you can see just how big the balance shift towards the defense was.
In other words, Ruff correctly identified how to best utilize Graves within the team structure, and the big defenseman thrived because of it, showing encouraging signs of what he could bring to Buffalo's defense.
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How will Byram fit in under Ruff?
According to Evolving Hockey, Bowen Byram is coming off the worst season of his career, which negatively impacted Colorado and Buffalo's standings. Byram ultimately was unnecessary after the Avalanche had a minus-0.3 point impact on the standings compared to replacement-level players. The Sabres are hoping for better results after their minus-1.3 point impact on the standings in 18 appearances last season.
how to use
Byram averaged 19 minutes per game last season with Colorado, then saw his minutes drop slightly after being traded to Buffalo, and his most successful run with the Sabres came when he was initially paired with Rasmus Dahlin in a top-pairing role for the Cards.
Both players are talented on both ends of the ice, so he's likely to play a lot of minutes regardless of the situation.
Quality of competition
Byram's production obviously declined in his first few games with Buffalo last season, as he seemed to regress from the initial impact he made with his new team. Part of that could be attributed to the fact that he faced the toughest competition of his career while with the Sabres.
He was used in a defensive role on the Avalanche's third pairing but was taken out when facing teams with the best offensive powers. Byram bounced back in the season finale, suggesting he may have just needed time to adjust to the challenge.
Quality of teammates
Compensating for the sharp increase in the challenges he's faced, the quality of his teammates has dropped to the lowest of his career since joining the Sabres, which isn't surprising as Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar are all better than any three players the Sabres could have at any one time.
Being on the third pairing meant he spent less time with Colorado's superstars than he would have in the past, which may have contributed to his lack of analytical ability. Still, a player drafted as high as Byram is expected to elevate those around him, and he didn't do that last season.
The Sabres were completely out of whack last season and need their entire lineup to bounce back, and that revival could include Byram, who has performed well in the past and has the potential to still be a force to be reckoned with.
Zone Start
Former Sabres head coach Don Granato tried to capitalize on Byram's offensive ability more than Colorado did, giving him his highest offensive zone faceoff percentage in three seasons, and Makar has weathered plenty of those situations with the Avalanche, so it's hard to blame his former team for not doing the same.
A similar arrangement for Byram under Ruff could play out, especially if paired with Dahlin. A Power-Jokiharju pairing would, in theory, consume a lot of starts in the defensive zone, as would any pairing that includes Mattias Samuelsson and Connor Clifton.
Byram Outlook
It's hard to predict what coaching tactics and thinking Coach Ruf will have with the Sabres this time around. With only press conferences on the record, it's hard to get a sense of what the coach is thinking. Plus, Henri Jokiharju's profile is closer to Graves' than Byram's, so he might be a better direct case study.
But we're looking to acquire an all-around defenseman and make the most of his situation, and Bowen Byram fits that perfectly. Ruff has developed many of these defensemen into our most reliable players, including Toni Rydman, Henrik Tallinder, Jaroslav Spacek and Alex Goligoski.
The Colorado elements of Graves and Byram show that Ruff knows how to incorporate players comfortable in man-to-man coverage into his system, and it shows a direct correlation: It's not necessarily the flashiest defensemen who thrive in Ruff's system, but the steady players who can consistently push the puck forwards.
Bowen Byram has the tools to be successful, some numbers suggest he just needs a better environment, and if Ruff can provide the right environment, we might finally see the former No. 4 overall pick start to reach his full potential.
