Bowen Byram ready to thrive under Ruff

A full season under a new team, a new coach and a new mindset can do wonders for a player. For defenseman Bowen Byram, joining the Buffalo Sabres, especially under head coach Lindy Ruff, could be the turning point the highly touted young talent needs. Based on Ruff’s experience with defensemen, including one he specifically coached from the Colorado Avalanche, Byram has a path to shine.

Ryan Graves is a big, shooting defenseman who started his career in the New York Rangers organization. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, where he made his NHL debut. His second full season in Colorado was his best, playing a lot with 21-year-old superstar Cale Makar.

So what does this have to do with Bowen Byram? After three seasons with the Avalanche, he was traded to the New Jersey Devils in an expansion draft roster shakeup. Graves’ two seasons in New Jersey under head coach Lindy Ruff were his best with any team. His numbers fell off last season after he was traded to Pittsburgh, leaving some uncertainty about his role on the Penguins’ defensive corps.

Looking at how Graves has thrived, there are some similarities to Byram. Let’s take a look at how Ruff and the coaching staff could create an environment for Byram to succeed based on his usage and style of play.

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Byram, Grave Similarities

Let’s get one thing straight from the start: Bowen Byram and Ryan Graves are far from the same defenseman. Graves is a big, strong, fairly mobile defenseman who was selected in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL Draft. Byram was a top prospect, selected fourth overall. generally in 2019, with exceptional skating and offensive ceiling.

Because of his limitations, Graves is considered more of a supporting player on a top-four defensive pairing, while Byram can be a star player. The two crossed paths in Colorado during the 2020-21 season, with Graves losing playing time to newcomer Devon Toews and Byram entering the lineup in a bottom-pairing role.

The unique feature of Colorado’s defense is the man-to-man defensive coverage. Most NHL teams use some form of zone coverage so that the defenders don’t chase the puck carrier all the way to the blue line. The Avalanche like to use their speed and skating to their advantage, tracking the puck carrier and forcing the play to a followed player.

Aside from Colorado’s system, both defenders are also good shooters. Byram is a more selective shooter with higher success rates than Graves, but their shooting ability is a strong point in their arsenal.

How Ruff Used the Tombs

Graves was traded to the Devils for the 2021-22 season after his worst season with the Avalanche. The rehabilitation was immediate, as Graves went from contributing just 0.8 rating points above replacement in Colorado to contributing 1.9 rating points above replacement in New Jersey, according to Evolving-Hockey.

Graves’ second season under Ruff was the best of his career, adding 3.4 points above replacement. It was providing even-strength offense where he shined, but the 2022-23 season also saw an increase in his penalty kill numbers.

Use

Ruff leaned heavily on Graves, deploying him in a top-pairing role. The big defenseman went from 19 minutes per game in Colorado to 21 minutes in New Jersey. When Ruff cut back slightly in his second season with the Devils, that’s when the numbers skyrocketed.

So that was the report? What else could Ruff have done to get the best out of Graves?

Quality of competition

It’s not by protecting the defenseman, that’s for sure. Graves’ quality of competition has increased dramatically with the Devils. He was their primary defensive defenseman in his first season in New Jersey. In 2022-23, he shared those duties with emerging player Jonas Siegenthaler.

Teammate quality

His primary defensive partners with the Devils were Dougie Hamilton and Damon Severson. They’re no slouches, but neither is Cale Makar, of course. In fact, the quality of his teammates has declined across the board in New Jersey, so it’s not like Ruff gave him better players to play with.

Understandably, given that the Avalanche were so rich in talent, it would have been a daunting task.

Departure area

Simply put, Ruff has turned Graves into a defensive defenseman. In Colorado, Graves averaged 10 percent of his starts in the defensive zone and 33 percent of his faceoffs in the defensive zone. Under Ruff, that number has increased to 14 percent of his starts in the defensive zone and 36 percent of his faceoffs in the defensive zone.

Compare that to New Jersey’s 9% offensive zone starts and 28.5% offensive zone faceoffs and you can see how much of a shift in balance there has been in favor of defense.

In other words, Ruff has figured out how to best utilize Graves within the team’s framework. The big defender has thrived because of it, giving encouraging signs of what he could bring to Buffalo’s defense.

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How Byram Fits Under Ruff

After having the worst season of his career, Bowen Byram had a negative impact on the standings in Colorado and Buffalo, according to Evolving-Hockey. His -0.3 point impact on the standings compared to a replacement-level player for the Avalanche ultimately made him irrelevant. The Sabres will be hoping for much better results after he had a -1.3 point impact on the standings during his 18-game stint with the Avalanche last season.

Use

Byram averaged 19 minutes per game last season in Colorado and slightly less after being traded to Buffalo. His most successful run with the Sabres came when he was initially paired with Rasmus Dahlin, which allowed him to play a top-pairing role in the Cards.

Given the talent of both players at both ends of the ice, he could be called upon to play a lot of minutes no matter the situation.

Quality of competition

The drop-off in the early games after being traded to Buffalo last season was evident, with Byram appearing to regress after the initial shock of being on a new team. One factor that may have worked in his favor is that he faced the toughest competition of his career while with the Sabres.

He went from being a third-pairing player in a protected role for the Avalanche to being sidelined against some of the best offensive opponents. Byram picked things up in the final games of the season, suggesting he may simply need time to adjust to the challenge.

Teammate quality

To offset that increase in difficulty, the quality of his teammates has plummeted to a career-low after joining the Sabres. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar outperform any three players the Sabres can deploy at the same time.

Being on the third pairing, he spent less time with Colorado’s superstars than in the past, which may have played a role in his reduced analytical impact. Still, someone drafted as high as Byram is supposed to lift those around him, and he didn’t do that last season.

The Sabres were completely out of sync last season, so the entire roster needs to bounce back. That supposed resurgence could include Byram, who has better underlying stats in the past, suggesting he still has plenty to give.

Departure area

Former Sabres head coach Don Granato gave Byram his best offensive-zone faceoff percentage in three seasons, trying to exploit his offensive capabilities more than Colorado’s. Makar often took advantage of those situations with the Avalanche, so it’s hard to blame his former team for not doing the same.

Byram’s deployment under Ruff could be similar, especially if he’s paired with Dahlin. A Power-Jokiharju pairing would, in theory, have a better chance of starting in the defensive zone, as would any pairing that includes Mattias Samuelsson or Connor Clifton.

Byram’s Perspectives

Ruff’s coaching tactics and ideas with the Sabres this time around are hard to predict, as it’s hard to get into the head coach’s head with only an introductory press conference to back it up. Plus, Henri Jokiharju has a much closer profile to Graves than Byram, so he may be the best direct case study.

We’re looking to take a versatile defenseman and maximize his situation, and Bowen Byram fits the bill perfectly. Ruff has made several of those defensemen his most trusted players, like Toni Lydman, Henrik Tallinder, Jaroslav Spacek and Alex Goligoski.

The Colorado factor with Graves and Byram also shows that Ruff knows how to integrate someone accustomed to man coverage into his system, giving us a direct correlation to build on. It’s not always the flashiest defenseman who thrives in Ruff’s system, it’s the one who is steady and can push the puck to his forwards consistently.

Bowen Byram has the tools to succeed and has posted some numbers that suggest he simply needs a better fit. If Ruff provides the right environment, we could see the former fourth overall pick finally start to reach his full potential.