{"id":438456,"date":"2024-03-06T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=438456"},"modified":"2024-03-06T15:32:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T20:32:10","slug":"casey-mittelstadt-traded-for-bowen-byram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/03\/06\/casey-mittelstadt-traded-for-bowen-byram\/","title":{"rendered":"Casey Mittelstadt Traded for Bowen Byram"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a huge deal for both teams, former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/sabres\/\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a> forward <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitteca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Casey Mittelstadt<\/a><\/strong> has been moved to the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/02\/28\/valeri-nichushkin-set-to-return-to-colorado-avalanche\/\" target=\"_self\"> Colorado Avalanche<\/a> for defenseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/byrambo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bowen Byram<\/a><\/strong>. News of the deal broke on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">**Breaking News** \ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udcf0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BuffaloSabres?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BuffaloSabres<\/a> are trading F Mittelstadt to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Avalanche?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Avalanche<\/a> for D Byram.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HockeyX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#HockeyX<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rUeNjSD0pD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rUeNjSD0pD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KevinWeekes\/status\/1765452036575780950?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Casey Mittelstadt and Bowen Byram: Both Major Pieces<\/h2>\n<p>The Colorado Avalanche have been searching for a second-line centre all season long, and have finally found him. The Sabres are getting an excellent young defenceman to bulk up what is already a strength of theirs.<\/p>\n<h4>Bowen Byram in Brief<\/h4>\n<p>Colorado&#8217;s had Byram as a top-pair piece in waiting since drafting him fourth overall in 2019. Unfortunately, injury troubles have plagued his early career, even calling it into doubt at one point. This season, he has been back and healthy and his production has followed suit. In his 55 games, Byram has 8 goals and 20 points, all at even strength.<\/p>\n<p>When the Avalanche acquired <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/toewsde01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devon Toews<\/a><\/strong>, it was theoretically to fill out their middle-six as Byram matured. Instead, he&#8217;s been the full-time partner of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/makarca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cale Makar<\/a><\/strong>, and Byram has become the piece to be moved to improve their depth up front. Byram, once he recovered, was the do-anything defenceman that was Toews&#8217; role.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t to say he&#8217;s not capable of much more. He is only 22 years old and has been playing NHL-level defence for the past three seasons. That he&#8217;s also in the first of a two-year deal paying $3.85 million &#8211; and an RFA after &#8211; is just icing on the cake.<\/p>\n<p>However, on Buffalo, Byram is still going to be finding his spot. The Sabres have two excellent left-side defensemen of their own, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/powerow01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Owen Power<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/dahlira01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rasmus Dahlin<\/a><\/strong>. Assuming no other deals happen to move them, someone will likely switch to the right side to get them ice time.<\/p>\n<h3>The Case for Casey Mittelstadt<\/h3>\n<p>Mittelstadt has a bit of an injury history himself but seems to have left that behind now. The Sabres selected him eighth overall in the 2017 draft and put him into the NHL soon after. He struggled to make an immediate impact, and the team eventually put him in the AHL in 2019-20 for seasoning.<\/p>\n<p>He started rounding into the form expected of him in 2022-23, playing all 82 games in a middle-six spot. There, he scored 15 goals and 59 points, using extra time on the power play effectively. This year he&#8217;s continued that pace, registering 14 goals and 47 points in 62 games.<\/p>\n<p>In Colorado, Mittelstadt should step into the slot behind <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mackina01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan MacKinnon<\/a><\/strong> easily. While the Avalanche certainly don&#8217;t need additional scoring overall, they will welcome it coming from somewhere other than their first line.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a huge deal for both teams, former Buffalo Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt has been moved to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Bowen Byram. News of the deal broke on Wednesday afternoon. **Breaking News** \ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udcf0@BuffaloSabres are trading F Mittelstadt to the @Avalanche for D Byram.#HockeyX pic.twitter.com\/rUeNjSD0pD &mdash; Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) March 6, 2024 Casey Mittelstadt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":432244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3,4547,34,4548],"tags":[3509,5833,927,5781],"class_list":["post-438456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avalanche","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-bowen-byram","tag-buffalo-sabres-news","tag-casey-mittelstadt","tag-colorado-avalanche-news"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}