You get smarter. Facts are superior to your feelings. It's a fact he gets caved in possession against mostly bottom 6 opposition starting in the Ozone. It's a fact half a goal more is scored against him than they score when he's on the ice. That isn't what a good defenseman does. Potential is subjective. I believe he has potential. Numbers aren't subjective. By the numbers he's a bottom 30% defenseman this season. You're comparing him favorably to Rasmus Andersson. I'd suggest you listen and learn. Andersson has been a top 20 analytic defenseman for about 4 years now. He's more in the Toews category than a 4-5 type like Byram who trails players like Zadorov.
Byram starts a whooping 52% of his shifts in the Ozone. He’s got a very encouraging DPO of .975 this season. He’s a career expected goals for of +4. He’s got more goals this year than Anderson playing less minutes a game, no real PP time/points and his most common teammate is RyJo. His coach plays him 3rd most minutes of any defender on a team with all of toews, Makar, Manson and Girard to choose from.
Maybe Bednar is stupid?
But calling Byram fringe top 4 makes zero sense based on his deployment by his coach.
Byrams excellent PDO score this year screams he’s a victim of the Avs well below average goalie play. Unfortunately for Colorado, Geo has take several steps back from his excellent 2022-23 season. Avs have one of the worst goals saved above expectations in the NHL.
That’s your main culprit for the low PDOs by several Avs.
RyJo is also a possession murdering mess out there. A guy that’s made every teammate worse he’s played with. Unfortunately for Byram, RyJo’s most frequent teammate is Byram.
And yet Byram still has 8 even strength goals. Byram has the same number of goals as McAvoy. And Byram gets no PP time or much run with Mack and Rants.
Great young player.