Report: Avalanche have interest in a potential Bowen Byram reunion

The Colorado Avalanche traded defenseman Bowen Byram in March of 2024.

It didn’t work out.

The Avs were hoping Casey Mittelstadt, acquired for Byram, could be their long-awaited answer at second-line center. That never came to fruition and Colorado GM Chris MacFarland eventually traded Mittelstadt for Charlie Coyle this past season. Coyle is a third-line center, so the Avalanche took a step back with that deal.

But could the situation get rectified by bringing the talented young defenseman Byram back home? At just 24-years-old, he’d look great returning to Colorado’s blue-line.

And according to NHL insider Darren Dreger, the Avalanche are one of many teams interested in trading for Byram from the Sabres. He’s a restricted free-agent this offseason and reportedly doesn’t have interest in inking a long-term deal to stay in Buffalo. That means the Sabres will likely try to trade him in the coming days.

On a new episode of “The Ray and Dregs Hockey Podcast” that dropped on Thursday, Dreger went through the list of clubs looking at Byram. At about the 11:50 mark is when he mentions the Avalanche and it leads to an interesting exchange between Dreger and ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro.

🚨New Pod, Streaming Now!🚨Pre-Draft Shakeup: Peterka to Utah, Kane to Vancouver, and Zegras to Philly. Plus, CBA Rumblings. https://t.co/5fkqAZCxH7

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 26, 2025

“That’s like your girlfriend in high school, and then you break up, and then she starts dating someone else and you’re like ‘oh wait a minute, I’d like to get back together,'” Ferraro jokes.

“The Casey Mittelstadt trade clearly did not work for them” Ferraro adds.

“Let’s just keep them in the conversation,” Dreger concludes.

Byram is coming off a season in which he had a career-high 38 points for the Sabres, scoring seven goals and adding 31 assists. He, of course, was a member of the Avalanche when they won the Stanley Cup in 2022, and also had a wild thing happen at the championship parade.

Byram is going to want to get paid by his new club, so it’s unclear how Colorado could make this work. The Avs have a little more than $1 million in salary cap space, so they’d have to move someone like Samuel Girard, Ross Colton, Josh Manson or Martin Necas in the deal.

Is this likely? Probably not. Dreger has about 1/4 of the NHL teams on his list that could acquire Byram. But it’d be a lot of fun and a big addition.

Let’s keep an eye on how it all shakes out.

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