Buffalo Sabres extend Bo Byram + 2025-26 schedule released

Buffalo Sabres extend Bo Byram + 2025-26 schedule released

Some resolution on the Bo Byum front and this year’s schedule coming up here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Your Locked On Sabers, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s up everybody and welcome in to this Wednesday edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can check us out on our YouTube channel. Be sure to watch the show there. You can like and subscribe and hit us up on our Locked OnSabers text club. You can do that by heading over to joinsubtex.com/lockedonsabers. Sign up there and then from there on you’re just texting back and forth. You only got to go to the website the one time. Sneaky Jody Bassi on today’s show. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. All right. Well, we’ve got a schedule, which means, by the way, speaking of game time, that if you are looking at tickets for this season, that’s going to be coming your way very shortly. And there’s no better way to look at that or check it out than on the Game Time app for your best options. Um, the Sabres have some news other than just the schedule. We’re going to talk Bo Byum on today’s show. We have a contract, which means we have a clear salary cap picture and then a little bit later on we’ll get into the schedule. A couple of things that I noticed from this year’s schedule. Um, some positives and one negative. there’s a month of the year that I’m looking at and thinking that could be the year where it all kind of comes to an end. Um, that could be the month, but we’ll get to that coming up a little bit later on on today’s show. Uh, we’ll start right off with the Bob Byum news. I mean, it was a 2-year deal that happened overnight a couple of nights ago, and I guess I’m not that surprised by a lot of what the details of this was, how it happened, and that it happened before arbitration. I guess I am surprised that it came before a trade, and we’ll talk about whether or not that idea is dead. But Byum signs with the Sabres for two years, $6.25 25 million, which leaves the Sabres with about roughly $7 million in salary cap space. This is not a bad contract for the player that Bo Byum is. It’s not really that bad a contract. It is about in the middle, I would say, of the projected contracts that I had seen. For Byum, AFP Analytics had it at like a 5.75 million contract. I had seen others that had projected it into the seven even upwards of $8 million range depending on the term and what team he would be traded to. Two years $6.25 million to me is kind of on the low end or in the middle of different contract projections that I had seen for Bo Byum. And for the Sabres it doesn’t really matter because they’re not going to spend at the cap here. They have only Connor Timmons and Devin Levi to sign. and with $7 million to play with, they’re not going to spend all of that on those two individuals. So for Byum, if he’s in your plans, $6.25 million is fine. And that really though becomes the question. Does this contract, which by the way walks him to unrestricted free agency, if he were to play out the two years on his contract, he becomes a UFA in the 2027 off season. Here’s why I don’t really I’m not really worried about that as I said actually on our previous show which is you walk in unrestricted free agency I’m not expecting him to make it that far. The Sabres will either get good and he takes a step and they will sign him to an extension or he’ll be traded this off season still. He’ll be traded in the middle of next year or he’ll be traded next off season or hell, he’ll even be traded at not this coming deadline, the next trade deadline after that. You’ve got four opportunities, long opportunities to move this player if you want to before you would ever lose him for nothing. And then the other way to look at the buyroom contract is that he is it buys you more time to work out a trade, but it also does it it keeps your blue line solid and secure right here, right now. I mean, maybe they had their sights set on another partner for Rasmus Dalene, but you do now have security of Dalene’s partner, I think, for the next two seasons or however long Boyum is on the roster because I think at this point you have to play him with Rasmus Dali. There is no way around it. You’ve especially if you do have your sights set on trading him, you want him playing at his best. And at his best, he’s playing with Rasmus Diene in the final 10 games of the season where he primarily played away from Dene. In fact, you could even go back to the last 15 games of the season. Bo Byum had no goals and four assists in those final 15 games. Whereas, if you go to the previous 66 games, seven goals, 27 assists, which is pretty good. That’s one thing about Byum here that 38 points, you know, it’s not jumping off the page. It’s fine. He was 15th in the NHL amongst defenseman and even strength points. There was that. But remember him going away from Dene. If he had finished the season playing with Dene or hell, Dene hadn’t missed 10 games in the middle where and they could have played a full season together. Those 38 points could have honestly even become upwards of 50, I think. And I think 50 points is about the limit for Bob Byer. It’s about the high-end ceiling given that he’s not going to be getting a lot of power play time. So, that could happen this year if they play him with Dene for the entirety of the season. Is there growth though still for this player? And for me, I think there could be. I don’t want to assume it and I would probably bet against it, but I am open to the idea that Byum has another level of play in him. He still is only 24 years old. He has only played 246 games in the National Hockey League. That honestly is not that much. I mean, it’s not nothing either. um he’s played more than Matias Samson for instance and I’m ready to declare that he’s no good. So, you know, I don’t want to bet on that there’s another level coming for him, but is it possible? If I were to ever want to sign him long term as the Buffalo Sabres, that’d have to happen to me. There is no, oh, you play the next two years with Dene, you put up 40 to 50 points and you’re inconsistent still without him and you’re not that great in your own end and you’re not playing in the power play. If the next two years look like that and he’s on the team, I’m not going to want to pay him long term. I’m going to want to trade him and that’s still where my my eyes are set, but I’ll get to that in a moment. If the only way to me an extension becomes a strong idea where next summer the Sabres would say, “Hey, you want to do a seven-year deal? You want to do a six-year deal?” It would be he hits another level and he either figures it out in his own end or he instead of 50 points with Diene, maybe he’s putting up 60 70 points with Dalene. Um and he’s and because of that he has forced his way onto the power play because he’s been so undeniably good at five on five. Think um not Noah Dobson. I know a different defenseman and this player is a lot better in his own end, but think Devin Taes. Devin Ta who had in his first three years a careerhigh of 31 points comes out the next year and for Colorado had 13 goals and 44 assists for 57 points. and finished eighth in the Norris. Again, I don’t think I don’t think that Byum has that gear in him defensively, but if he can get around that number offensively and starts to work his way into the power play, then maybe we start to have a discussion. But to me, trade trade is still the idea. Here’s the question, though. Does signing this deal mean a trade is out of the question? That they will not do that this summer? We’ll explore that question when we come back. You’re in the Locked On Savers podcast. Today’s episode of the Locked On Savers podcast is presented by Indeed. If you needed the right hire yesterday, you got to get on Indeed. You just realize your business needed to hire somebody. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed, sponsored jobs puts your post at the top of the page and helps you reach the right candidates faster. Have you ever been in that spot where you need the right hire like yesterday when the pressure is on and every day without the right person is a setback? It’s very stressful. And that’s exactly when Indeed sponsored jobs comes in handy. They make sure that your post is seen by the right candidates right now. And right now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 sponsored job credit. Just go to indeed.com/lockedon right now. Support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Back here on the Lockdown Savers podcast, the Savers signed Bo Byum. Two years, $6.25 million. Also, the schedule is out and we will get to that coming up in just a little bit. But rounding out the conversation on Byum, does this file away the trade conversation about Byum for the rest of the off season? And I think it it more likely than not does. It does not have to rule out a trade. There is no CBA rule or anything leverage-wise that says the Sabres are in a much worse position right now to sign Byum than they would have been before. Now, you could sit there and say, well, another team having contract control without having to sign him, they get to decide what the deal looks like. That is a benefit that another team might have wanted. Sure. But that would imply that any team that was considering Byum would be out because, well, you signed him to two years, $6.25 million. I can’t do that. I was hoping to get him for blank. Five, five and a half. What would What did What did another team think was realistic that now that he’s signed, oh, can’t do that. Can’t do that. The only thing that another team might have wanted to do that they can’t now is sign him to a long-term extension. They’d have to wait a year. But I mean, you could just do that in a year. You have the rights and if the rel the relationship goes well, then you just do it in a year and everybody’s good, right? So, I don’t think that this has to take any leverage away. It gave the Sabres additional leverage by eliminating the offer sheet as a possibility. It also gets him under contract. So the Sabres now, if they are going to tell other teams, hey, we don’t have to trade him. And if another GM before is going, okay, sure, you don’t have to trade him. We’ll talk to you in a week when you’re ready to. Now Kevin Adams could look that other GM in the eye and say, oh yeah, we don’t have to trade him. He’s under contract for two years. We’re good. He’s signed. He’s ours. So in that way it could even help facilitate a trade. There is something though just about signing the player and the two sides coming to an agreement that I think would show both sides showing a willingness to extend this relationship. Obviously it’s a contract and I was really thinking one of the two could have been the Sabres could have been Byum. one of the two sides was going to say, “I really just don’t want this relationship to go any further.” Byum, whether that was moving all the stuff out of his house or the Sabres really never talking about him as a core member of the team, thought one of the two, I didn’t know which one would say, I just I would prefer to just move on here. And both sides coming to an agreement of, yeah, we don’t have to move on and we’re okay playing this out. I think indicates that the favorite right now as we sit here on July 16th knowing that yeah, Brian Rust as an idea is still out there and maybe there’s another name out there in the trade market that we don’t know about that could make sense for the Sabres in the forward ranks. You know, if there’s an opportunity that comes about, I think he’s still the guy to move. But right now, I would predict that he is in the lineup on opening night. though if for as long as this situation has been going on I have considered trade to be the favorite that that is the most likely outcome and today with this contract being signed I would say that now a trade is the underdog that is the the less likely of what’s going to happen with Byron I think you’re going to see him on the Buffalo Sabres night one starting off with Rasmus Dene on the top pair And the one benefit of Byron being here, if you like the player enough, and I’m I’m back and forth on him. I think he’s pretty bad in his own end, and I think that this the point about him not being good without Dalene is a strong point. But if he’s with Dalene and I’m getting positive offensive plays from him because he’s always in the offensive zone because Dalene’s his partner and I’ve now followed that up with power in Kessle Ring and my third pair of Samuelson and Timonss. I think the Sabres blue line is ready to be the strength of this team. It’s not hard to do. Their forward group kind of stinks and their goalending situation kind of stinks. Could their defense core be great? Let me just put it this way. I don’t think their forward group has the capability of being a top 10 forward group in the NHL. I don’t even think they have it in them. Their best case scenario, don’t have it in them. The goalending, don’t think they have it in them to be the 10 best goalie situation in the league. Don’t think it’s there. The blue line, I think it has it. In fact, I might even say it has the ability to be top five. number one even I think it’s possible very unlikely that they’re the best blue line in the league but how unlikely is top 10 Den stays healthy and it’s a Norris candidate and power takes a a good step forward not even a gigantic step forward and Kessle Ring is ready to play on the second pair and Byum is good offensively and my third pair now is stabilized like that’s a top 10 blue line in the NHL they should at least be above average anything that’s not at least above average to me is a failure and anything between like the 10th and the 16th best blue line in the league is a disappointment. Top 10 is the bar to clear and a great outcome is that they’re a top five blue line in the league. You could debate how you’ll measure that. You know, you could look at stats for that. You could just look at the eye test. Um but I would like to say I would like to believe that at the end of this year they’re going to be a top five defense core in the NHL. And Byum is not the biggest part of that. He’s not even the second biggest part of that, but hopefully he is a part of that. All right, when we come back, the schedule is out. Couple of things I noticed from the Buffalo Sabres regular season schedule that starts with the Rangers. Opening night always feels like it’s one of the same four teams. Don’t they always open against Islanders, Rangers, Senators? Does it always feel like it’s the same three? Anyways, we’ll get to the schedule when we come back. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Savers podcast is presented by FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. And whether you are all about baseball under the lights, how about that all-star game last night, golf, you got a major coming up this week, or high stakes soccer action. You got all the Premier League teams that are getting back into action. 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Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com today to get started. Back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast, the Buffalo Sabres schedule for the 202526 season is out. Will this be the schedule that breaks the drought? Well, couple of things when looking at it in hockey schedules, whenever you look at it, really, what are the first things you’re looking for? I’m looking for matinea games. How many afternoon games do they have on Saturdays or Sundays? How many Sunday games they have in the first place? How many back-to-backs do they have? When does Toronto come to visit? Are there any revenge games on the schedule? For instance, when you’re looking at when Utah is going to come in and JJ Purka makes his return, that’s going to be early in the year on November 4th. That’s going to be a Tuesday. Um, couple of things that I noticed. one, if you’re hoping the Buffalo Sabres get off to a hot start, one thing that they have in their favor is four of the first five games are at home. Six of the first eight are at home. So, home games to start the year. They’re not the easiest of opponents, right? Rangers, Avalanche, Senators, P, uh, Panthers, those are your first four. That’s three playoff teams and the Rangers who wouldn’t be surprising at all to see them right back in the playoff picture. And two of those teams are like contenders, strong contenders in Colorado and Florida. But nonetheless, home games at the beginning of the year and into the first month. Really, it’s the first two months through December. The Buffalo Sabres only have 10 road games through the first two months. And I believe it’s how many home games? That’s 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. So first two months, first 25 games, 15 home games to 10 road games. It’ll that you want them to get off to a strong start. You want to make it feel like the season is alive and we’re not already dead in the water doing this in November. Here’s why the the first two months are important, though. not only to feel like the season’s live, but because you might you might need them to build a little bit of a buffer early on because I am very worried about the Buffalo Sabres December slate. They play some good teams in there and it’s a lot of road games. Philly on the road, Winnipeg on the road, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle, New Jersey, Ottawa, St. Louis, and Dallas. That’s all those are all just road games in the same month. 10 10 road games in one month to four home games. They got to get through December. If they can make it through December being in the playoff race, I’m going to feel like there’s a strong chance that they’re in it right to the very end because I’ll be very impressed if they’re able to get through that December being on the road west coast trip that second week. Um it’ll be very impressive to me if they’re able to get through that given especially what their what their roster is. They have 11 backtobacks. I don’t know what that’s like by league context, but a lot of them are actually in the second half of the season. So again, kind of implies maybe they could get off to a strong start. Um again, I don’t know how many back-to-backs the average team has, but 11 didn’t feel like a lot for me. So I’ll I’m going to file that tenatively as a as a plus. Toronto. I love the Toronto home games early in the year when the season feels like it’s alive. You get that gives you more Saber fans. I know Toronto’s going to fill up the building one way or or another, but last year, end of the season. Sabres are out of it. It’s like the second last home game of the year. Nobody cares. The season’s over. Toronto fills up the building. It’s 9010 maybe. Give me Elite. Give me 7030. Leafs to Saber fans. But to get that, I need the Sabres to be alive. I need them to be in it. and you get a home and home with Toronto right away in the third week of the season on October 24th and 25th. That’s a Friday night hosting Toronto followed by a Saturday night game in Toronto. I love that. I love the home and home with the Maple Leafs. So, love that. And then your second Toronto home game um comes later in the year. That’ll be on March 14th. And let’s pray that the Sabres are still alive uh on that date. Early March, by the way, that’s another one of those stretches where they have six out of seven at home. So, they got these long stretches at home and then these long stretches on the road. And that’s not that abnormal by uh by the NHL standards, but it’s very much by month. It’s like October is a home month and March is a home month and December is a road month. Uh February and there’s a break in the middle, but February is five out of six on the road. So kind of they do it by month here. The final game of the season, Dallas uh at home. Dallas at home. You know, they could have things clinched by then if that game is uh mattering to the Buffalo Sabres. And again, one can only pray that that’s the case. So that’s the Saber schedule for you. home opener against the Rangers on October 9th and almost all 7:00 games in lessons of matinea game. You got a couple of those throughout the year. In fact, the second weekend of the season, that’s October 18th, 1:00 against the defending champion Florida Panthers. So, look forward to that. The whole schedule, obviously, you can check it out on the Sabres website. And um yeah, excited for the season start on October 9th. That’s going to do it for today’s edition of the Locked On Savers podcast. So, thanks for making us your first listen every day and a lot more hockey content of course coming your way throughout the offseason on Locked on NHL. Check them out. No offseason podcast brings you the daily leaguewide stories that matter most like NHL. You can find them in YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. And we’ll talk to you next time here on the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres and defenseman Bowen Byram have come to an agreement on a two-year, $6.25M extension, that walks him to unrestricted free agency. Is the two-year deal a risk for Kevyn Adams and the Sabres? Does the extension kill the possibility of a trade? Sneaky Joe goes through the possible scenarios for Byram this offseason and the next two seasons.

Plus, the 2025-26 NHL schedule is out! A look at the Sabres schedule sees a lot of home games early in the season, a home-and-home with the Maple Leafs in October, and a looooot of road games in the month of December.

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