‘I love him to death.’ Trade to Sabres reunites Bowen Byram with close friends Cozens, Krebs

The buzzing phone. The eruption of text messages. The interrupted nap. At this time of year, that’s a fairly familiar sequence of events for an NHL hockey player. When it’s Trade Deadline season, you can expect some jaw-dropping news to break.

But when one of those bombshells tells you one of your lifelong best friends is now your teammate? That doesn’t happen every day.

That’s why Dylan Cozens couldn’t get his heart rate to settle Wednesday afternoon when his phone, practically giving off smoke, yanked him out of his sleep. He had to process the sadness of losing his longtime teammate, center Casey Mittelstadt, to the Colorado Avalanche. But that was juxtaposed with the euphoria of learning defenseman Bowen Byram was now a Buffalo Sabre. Cozens and Byram, taken three picks apart in Round 1 of 2019 NHL Draft, played together as far back as midget. They were teammates with Canada at the under-17s and under-18s and for two World Junior Championships, taking home a 2020 gold and 2021 silver. So while Cozens, speaking to reporters after Buffalo’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday, admitted it hurt to lose Mittelstadt, he couldn’t hide his excitement about Byram.

“He’s one of my best friends,” Cozens said. “I’m really excited to add him to this team. He’s going to fit in so well. He’s just such a great player with so much potential. He’s not even close to his ceiling yet.”

Byram called Cozens shortly after learning the Avs had sent him to Buffalo in the one-for-one trade Wednesday afternoon. Also dishing out some of the tea: Byram’s girlfirend, Kailey Rankin. She was getting in touch with Erica Holden, who was FaceTiming with her husband: Sabres center Peyton Krebs, another 2019 first-rounder, another Western Canadian and another longtime friend of Byram’s. Krebs played on the 2021 WJC squad with Cozens, Byram and another Sabres first-round pick: right winger Jack Quinn. Krebs went through similar emotions to Cozens, struggling to process Mittelstadt’s departure but over the moon about a reunion with Byram.

“Mitt’s, it’s sad to see him go, he’s an unbelievable teammate. He represented Buffalo really well. Couldn’t say enough good things about him. It hurts my heart to even think about it,” Krebs said. “But we got a guy I’ve known since I was eight years old. Bo is an unbelievable guy, I love him to death and I think he’s going to fit so good into our group and I’m excited for him to get here. It’s gonna be awesome.”

The Avalanche are two years removed from winning the Stanley Cup and have struggled to replace their No. 2 center slot after Nazem Kadri and J.T. Compher departed in consecutive offseasons. For them, the trade was about solidifying a weakness. Mittelstadt, a former elite prospect and 2017 first-round pick, was a phenom coming up through the Minnesota high school ranks and the University of Minnesota. It took him several seasons to find his footing as an NHLer, but he’s gotten there in the past couple years and is on pace for a career-best 65 points. The 25-year-old pending RFA still has some potential to unlock, but the Avs mostly know what they’re getting.

For the Sabres, who have a glut of young forwards in the system and needed to move one out, the trade is about potential. No one doubts that Byram oozes it. He can skate like the wind. He can play with an edge. He brings decent size at 6-foot-1 and 196 pounds. By just 22 years old, he averages 13 goals and 35 points per 82 games in the NHL. But those games, of course, have been so spread out. Injuries have limited his sample sizes across his first four NHL campaigns. His 55 games played this season are already a career high. He hasn’t been able to sustain momentum, and he’s struggled to drive play this season, but a fresh start could unlock what is legitimately a Norris-Trophy caliber ceiling.

“Man, he’s just so good with the puck,” Cozens said. He’s always got his head up. He can skate with it so well, he can log huge minutes. He can play both sides of the game. He’s got an edge. He’s just so skilled with his vision, and his hockey IQ is incredible. So I’m excited to see him get some more opportunities and get his confidence, just watch him fly out there.”

“Off the ice he’s the definition of a beauty, I’d say,” Krebs said, “If you meet him you’ll understand for sure. On the ice, he has a ton of skill, works his brains out, he’s not afraid to get dirty in the corners, too. He’s a Cup champion. We need that in our locker room.”

After the trade, the Sabres have more promising blueliners then they know what to do with on the left side: fellow first-overall picks Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, Byram and, when healthy, Mattias Samuelsson. But Dahlin, the Sabres’ franchise cornerstone, has plenty of experience playing the right side. And coach Don Granato said Wednesday he plans to start Byram on a No. 1 pair with Dahlin playing right defense – once Byram has recovered from the illness that would’ve kept him out of Colorado’s game Wednesday night.

Granato also said that, while he was down about losing the beloved Mittelstadt, speaking on the phone with Byram was a mood-changer. It energized Granato.

Perhaps Byram and the Sabres can embark on a symbiotic relationship, then. His energy and skill can spur a team looking for hope as it prepares to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs for an NHL record 13^th straight season in the coming weeks. For Byram, a new team and some very familiar faces could jumpstart a career that, so far, hasn’t lived up to its considerable hype.