Prospect Info: Bowen Byram - D [2019: 4th Overall] Part II: Now serving a side of overconfidence!
- Thread starter S E P H
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cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
So this is what it's like to be cgf... not my favourite.
You get used to it by the third novel.
Foppa Frossa
Registered User
Sounded like he lead the team in ice-time amongst defenseman in the previous game, playing both PP and PK.
Kaizer
Registered User
Yes, he leads TC with M/G after 4 games - https://www.iihf.com/pdf/422/ihm4220can_83_4_0_can. This is even more impressive if you consider that he played limited time in first 2 games.
SoundwaveIsCharisma
Moderator
You can see he's lost a lot of the confidence that he had last year, he's second guessing himself and not pushing the pace of the game as much. This can be a really good learning experience for a young kid, it seems like he's got the mindset to make the most out of this.
Ararana
Registered User
For me, a Bowen fanboy, there's two things:
1. Lets face it, he just hasn't put up the offensive numbers we'd hoped for so far this tournament. It's a bit disappointing but I'm not going to overreact from it.
2. Byram is the second youngest defenseman in that group, a full year younger than 5 other guys, and Canada has made him their work horse. He's getting PP2 time, he's playing on the PK, and he's been leading team Canada in time on ice for the last 3/4 games. Considering it was his defensive game and reliability that was the big issue with him sticking in the NHL, that's encouraging to me.
1. Lets face it, he just hasn't put up the offensive numbers we'd hoped for so far this tournament. It's a bit disappointing but I'm not going to overreact from it.
2. Byram is the second youngest defenseman in that group, a full year younger than 5 other guys, and Canada has made him their work horse. He's getting PP2 time, he's playing on the PK, and he's been leading team Canada in time on ice for the last 3/4 games. Considering it was his defensive game and reliability that was the big issue with him sticking in the NHL, that's encouraging to me.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
I'm sure it's because I was always lower on his offensive potential than his bigger fans, but I'm pretty pleased with what we've seen so far. I never expected him to Makar it up on the scoresheet, so him earning the coaching staff's trust to expand his role over the course of the tourney has been nice to see...as has watching him figure out how to contribute to a team that doesn't need him to be everywhere, doing everything, offensively. Yes he still needs his "man strength" and Deni walked him, but he's a baby, so those don't bother me.
PS Bo rustling jimmies successfully enough to get a healthy cup-check was so on brand, as was his response
PS Bo rustling jimmies successfully enough to get a healthy cup-check was so on brand, as was his response
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SoundwaveIsCharisma
Moderator
I'm sure it's because I was always lower on his offensive potential than his bigger fans, but I'm pretty pleased with what we've seen so far. I never expected him to Makar it up on the scoresheet, so seeing him earning the coaching staff's trust to expand his role and watching him figuring out how to make an impact on a team that doesn't need him to be everywhere, have been nice positives. Yes he still needs his "man strength" and Deni walked him, but he's a baby.
PS Bo rustling jimmies successfully enough to get a healthy cup-check was so on brand, as was his response
I really think Bo needs to end up a on a stronger team (in the Dub) for him to really grow his offensive game. I'd like him to be on a team where he isn't the go to for offense so he learns how to appropriately distribute the puck and to make high level decisions. He looked great with the Giants when the relied on him heavily, but a lot of the plays were of him just carrying the puck and ripping it. That's great, but that's usually something that works with lesser talent and ends up leading to bad habits once you make it to the NHL. So if he can learn how to move the quickly effectively, while growing his defensive game, it'll be the best thing long-term
Perratrooper
Registered User
Do big clubs slide a little $$$ to dub teams to make trades for the betterment of their prospects? Probably something not in record, but if anyone knows please let me know.
Cousin Eddie
You Serious Clark?
- Nov 3, 2006
- 40,152
- 37,330
Is anyone capable of finding these for prior tournaments? Would love to know the last 18 year old blue liner to lead Canada in minutes.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Do you think Eric Brewer could be part of the next series of Justice League movies and transform the franchise? Much like the Rock has done for Fast and Furious or Robert Downey Jr did for Marvel.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Brewer could only play a villain, if he was a protagonist then nobody would care about any of the other heroes. Too much charisma.
SoundwaveIsCharisma
Moderator
I feel like everyone would just end up being disappointed and say "it was pretty good, but just not enough Brewer"
- Feb 24, 2012
- 63,006
- 47,282
Byram's offensive game was overrated due to his production last season. He is a rover type offensively and needs the freedom to play that way to produce at a high level. His shot was a bit overrated too. The decrease in production this season in the dub and WJC should have been expected. That style of play is also very hard to translate to the NHL where there is more structure expected. Those characteristics translate when a player is nearing elite offensively, and I don't see that in Byram. I think he certainly talented and will produce offense in the NHL, I just don't see that roving/one man show sorts working. IMO his game is going to have to change quite a bit when he gets to the NHL and has to round out. I think his skating ability, IQ, physicality and ego are going to be tailor made to be a very good 2 way defender in the NHL... it will just take time for that to happen.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with his tournament so far... he's getting beat 1v1 more than I like and that is where I feel his bread and butter will be in the NHL as that is where his skillset should be able to shine. Obvious there will be a learning curve though.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with his tournament so far... he's getting beat 1v1 more than I like and that is where I feel his bread and butter will be in the NHL as that is where his skillset should be able to shine. Obvious there will be a learning curve though.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Yeah. It would be awesome if he was stronger and dominating defensively, but he's still very young and doing a lot of things well. So I'm still really happy with the way he should complement Makar, down the line...though we could still someone like Murray to partner Cale until then...
Do they really? You've probably watched a lot more than me but they look pretty stacked in terms of firepower. They seem to want more defense from him from what I can tell. Not trying to start an argument here, these are really just cursory observations on my part.
Avsboy
Registered User
- Dec 12, 2006
- 32,243
- 16,657
I didn't watch today. I like the sound of his defensive game, but he needs some points. That's basically all I'm saying. I'll tune in to the semis
I guess I'm in the minority now but I really haven't really liked what I have saw so far from Byram.
Especially on the defensive side of things. His gap control and defending off the rush has been underwhelming, and some of the decisions he has made with the puck in his zone haven't been great either.
Offensively, you can see the skill, he's made some good pinches and had some good chances and created good chances for others, and I like that he's been able to make the safe play instead of the risky play a few times in certain situations. I think overall his offensive game has been good, especially if you had your expectations in check for him going into this tournament.
He is only 18 and younger than pretty much all other guys on that Canada defense(Aside from the #7 guy Drysdale)so it's hard to compare him to the others on that group, but I think besides McIsaac and maybe Drysdale(But he has played so little it's hard to get a read on his play really), he's been Canada's weakest Dman in the Defensive zone overall. And it really puzzles me as to why he keeps getting more minutes.
Especially on the defensive side of things. His gap control and defending off the rush has been underwhelming, and some of the decisions he has made with the puck in his zone haven't been great either.
Offensively, you can see the skill, he's made some good pinches and had some good chances and created good chances for others, and I like that he's been able to make the safe play instead of the risky play a few times in certain situations. I think overall his offensive game has been good, especially if you had your expectations in check for him going into this tournament.
He is only 18 and younger than pretty much all other guys on that Canada defense(Aside from the #7 guy Drysdale)so it's hard to compare him to the others on that group, but I think besides McIsaac and maybe Drysdale(But he has played so little it's hard to get a read on his play really), he's been Canada's weakest Dman in the Defensive zone overall. And it really puzzles me as to why he keeps getting more minutes.
- Apr 25, 2006
- 49,595
- 52,837
I really like the fact that his coaches started trusting him more and more and went from 3rd pairing to the guy playing the most minutes (although it could be attributed to the dmen in front of him having a really hard time).
Byram is still too offensive-minded for his own good. You can tell he really liked scoring as much as he did last year and wants to replicate that but I agree that his future in the NHL is being a good 2-way defenseman. The good thing is we don't need him to be an offensive dynamo since we already have one. He won't see a lot of 1st PP minutes for a good chunk of his career anyway. Hopefully he'll find the right people to teach him how to become what he needs to become to succeed in the NHL. The talent is there, the tools are there, he just needs the right mold.
Byram is still too offensive-minded for his own good. You can tell he really liked scoring as much as he did last year and wants to replicate that but I agree that his future in the NHL is being a good 2-way defenseman. The good thing is we don't need him to be an offensive dynamo since we already have one. He won't see a lot of 1st PP minutes for a good chunk of his career anyway. Hopefully he'll find the right people to teach him how to become what he needs to become to succeed in the NHL. The talent is there, the tools are there, he just needs the right mold.
How has he been defending the front of the net and not allowing the opponents to cycle and get a man open in front?
Difficult to say really. Because the only games so far in this tournament where a team has really been able to establish any sort of quality cycle game at even strength against Canada has been the United States and Russia. In the Russia game pretty much the entire Canadian Defense looked like trash and were getting dominated in all facets. Its hard to really truly judge anyone in that game. The United States game, I personally thought the Defense looked suspect in that one as well.
But since those two games they've pretty much dominated the Germans, a tired Czech team, and Slovakia today. They've had very little to deal with at even strength as the majority of play has been in the offensive zone.
That said, there's been at least a few plays so far where Byram hasn't been able to outmuscle his man in the slot or along the board and lost the battles. In front of the net he's given up a couple dangerous rebound chances by losing those battles. He's shown some decent stick work along the boards which is probably his strongest defensive skill that I've seen so far. If he's not going to win the battle physically he'll start using his stick and can usually gain possession and at least move the puck along to a different area of the ice.
It's hard to judge him in those cycle/physical board battle and front of the net situations though because as CGF alluded to already, he's only 18 years old. I know he got worked by Denisenko quite a bit in that game against Russia, but Denisenko is a 19 year old and that extra year of muscle building can make a huge difference at that age. If he's back here next year in this tournament I dont doubt he'll be one tough son of a bitch along the boards and especially with that little edge that he plays with, he'll piss a lot of guys off next year in those board battles.
The area of concern for me is his defense off the rush and some of his decision making. I had hoped it would be better. For example that one play he made today on the PK after a faceoff win, where instead of making the simple easy play and baking it behind the boards to the wide open winger for an easy clear, he held the puck for a extra half second and then chipped it to his Defense partner right in the slot, who clearly wasn't expecting it, fumbled the pass and the Slovaks got a real high end chance out of it. It was just a weird decision to make when the clearly set up and easy play was just to pass it behind the net to Veleno for the clear. The very next faceoff the same situation played out again and this time he made the right play and got it to Veleno who quickly got it safely out of the zone.
Just little plays like that, which should have been a routine play but Byram almost overthought it or tried to get too cute/creative when he really didn't need to. They're somewhat concerning but at 18 it also should just be a good learning point and something he'll quickly fix in his game.
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