ORCHARD PARK – The Sabres tried to convince Bowen Byram to stay in Buffalo. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen said he spent all season working on a new contract, calling it his “first priority.”
But Byram, 25, wanted to become a No. 1 defenseman, an opportunity he would likely never have in Buffalo with captain Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson around. So, according to Kekalainen, Byram “didn’t want to negotiate.”
“He wasn’t gonna sign with us,” Kekalainen said Wednesday at One Bills Drive, where the Sabres are headquartered for this weekend’s NHL Draft. “So that didn’t leave us an option to do anything else with this.”
The Sabres had to make a decision, so Tuesday, they traded Byram and winger Jordan Greenway to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the fourth and 45th overall picks this weekend and defenseman Louis Crevier.
“The deal that we had in front of us, couple deals we had in front of us, were too good to pass on,” Kekalainen said. “So we made the trade, and now we have some draft capital that we can use to improve our team, whether it’s in the near future with a trade, or by making a pick.
“We’ll weigh all those options until the draft time and make another decision.”
Byram, who has one year left on his contract, is expected to sign a long-term deal with the Blackhawks.
“He wanted to get the chance to be a No. 1 defenseman, I respect that,” Kekalainen said. “He has a year left before he gets to free agency, and that’s when the players have a lot of power, and you see that sometimes even two years left in the contract where they sort of make a power move and make it well known that they’re not signing an extension.
“The more term that you have left, the better value you can get for a player. In this case, we had one more year left before his free agency, and we feel like we got very good value.”
The Sabres’ haul from the Blackhawks certainly raised some eyebrows. Top-five picks are coveted, and parting with one in addition to a second-rounder and a right-shot defenseman seems like a lot to trade even for a player of Byram’s caliber.
Teams coming off a 50-win, 109-point season rarely end up with a high selection like the fourth overall pick.
The Sabres could use that pick and their others – they also have the 20th – to find a replacement for Byram or winger Alex Tuch, who on Wednesday was traded to the Washington Capitals.
Kekalainen said acquiring a defenseman is “definitely a focus right now.”
“We have a lot of ammunition to explore if there’s another trade that we can make,” he said. “Defensemen are not easy to find, but we’ve had some productive talks.”
Kekalainen said he has “told all the teams that have inquired about the No. 4 pick that we’re just gonna listen for now, take notes and see what they think is the value of No. 4.”
“We value that very highly, obviously, ourselves,” he said. “We know there’s a great prospect available there that’s gonna be two, three years away, maybe more, before they can make an impact on our team. We want to keep getting better as a team. We had an exciting team, but still disappointing at the end.
“We’ll gather that information around the league and see what the value is, and if we don’t think it’s as much as making the pick, then we make the pick.”
In the 6-foot-8 Crevier, Kekalainen said the Sabres possess a defenseman with “a lot of upside.” He might slot in as their fifth or sixth defender.
“He can cover a lot of space with his length and reach,” Kekalainen said.
Crevier compiled seven goals, 25 points, 63 penalty minutes and a minus-2 rating in 78 games last season, his first full NHL campaign.
The Blackhawks drafted him in the seventh round in 2020, 188th overall.
“He’s made himself into an NHL player, which talks about his character and drive,” Kekalainen said. “We talk to people from our sources about that. It’s one thing we always take seriously is you have skill, you have ability, but do you have character? Do you have competitiveness that we’re looking for in a Buffalo Sabre?
“And we came to the conclusion that he has all those values that we require in our team. That convinced us that he was an important part of this trade.”