LD Bowen Byram - Vancouver Giants, WHL (2019, 4th, COL)
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SoundwaveIsCharisma
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It's a smart move for the Avs, he's got a ton of talent, but that may be squandered giving him fewer minutes in a tertiary role as opposed to letting him further develop his offensive talents, and his overall game.
Smart move. Very few defenders are ready for the NHL at 18. To be honest, the list of defenders who did play in the NHL full time at 18 isn't particularly impressive. For whatever reasons, the guys who made full time debuts at 19 (in a lot of cases late-birthdays) seem to have shown better. I mean, here is the list of 18 year old D-men who played over 30 games as an 18 year old since the full-season lockout. Dahlin (Likely to break the track record, but hasn't yet), Ekblad, Chychrun, Hanifin, Bogosian, and Sbisa. Yes, that is an extremely small sample size which you can't draw firm conclusions from, and some are also still developing. But, consdering the talent, its strange not more emerged as elite players. Compare that to the late-birthday guys who made it in year 1 which includes Doughty, Seth Jones, and Hedman. Now, it also includes Luke Schenn and guys who are solid but never lived up to expectations like Adam Larsson. You look at the early birthday 19-year-olds, there are also a bunch of studs like Karlsson, Rielly, Trouba, and H. Lindholm, plus guys like Werenski and Provorov tracking well.
Young D, its always best to be ultra-cautious with. Someone like Dahlin you can't hold back, but that tier below them you probably should.
Young D, its always best to be ultra-cautious with. Someone like Dahlin you can't hold back, but that tier below them you probably should.
- Aug 28, 2009
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Not sure why it’s surprising.
Evaluations of players are dependant on what they consistently display at the nhl level.
What different players do during camp and preseason isn’t necessarily relevant at this age. The amount of maturing these guys go through completely alters their play on the ice. Many 18 year olds will look better than other 18 year old and yet, will still have worse careers in the long run.
GirardSpinorama
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- Aug 20, 2004
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Bowen needed to dominate for us to keep him up, Connor Timmins has been a revelation (offensively and defensively) and took that final spot. On a team with a worse blue line, he would have gotten the 9 game try out at least.
a mangy Meowth
Ross Colton Fan
a mangy Meowth
Ross Colton Fan
Excelling seems like a strong word for 5-6 preseason games, which just doesn't amount to being evidence of anything for these players.
Including the 2018 draft seems weird to me - I didn't ask about it.
the pre-season determines if they make the roster or not, so you're mistaken into thinking it doesn't amount to being evidence of anything for these players. sorry byram wasn't good enough to survive final cuts. maybe next year will be his year. maybe not.
newfy
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- Jul 28, 2010
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Will play a top 4 role for Canada at the world junior this year I'm sure. Could end up the top guy depending on what happens with Smith, Dobson and McIsaac between now and then. He has the skill to overtake any of them as well I think but hard to do for a draft+1 dman in that tourney
a mangy Meowth
Ross Colton Fan
None of those players, other than Smith, are NHL level players right now. They'd all be better served by being sent down.
And nothing to be sorry about. Byram definitely wasn't ready. Team has some pretty good depth d-men.
how do you know they're not nhl level players right now? they're clearly good enough to be on the team this deep, unlike byram. they've been competing with players who have an inside track on making the team and so far, so good.
a mangy Meowth
Ross Colton Fan
Lol, first of all your strange desire to take a shit on Byram is noted. Kid sucks, he's a bust, waste of pick etc.
Second, I don't know that, but let's not act like Los Angeles or Detroit has a 'deep' defense. Maybe in the "we're in DEEP doo-doo" sense, I guess. Lol.
Harley has impressed me. Dallas has a good defense and if he makes it, props to him man. He looked really good against us in a preseason game too.
The Nemesis
Semper Tyrannus
Why would going to the NCAA make a difference? It's not a better developmental league than the WHL is. Cale Makar is good because he's good, not because college made him into a better pro than he would've been coming out of major junior.
Raistlin
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- Aug 25, 2006
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Bjornfot, Harley and Heinola from the top of my head, Seider is looking great too late in preseason.
The list of high-end D-men who played in the WHL at 18 is pretty long and filled with a lot of good players. Seth Jones and Morgan Rielly are arguably the best 25 and under D in the league (not factoring in expected improvement from guys like Dahlin), and both were in the WHL at 18 as 4th and 5th overall picks (although, Jones is a late-birthday making him ineligible to play in the NHL at 18). So, it is not like looking at examples of late-bloomers like Duncan Keith (who played in JR A, NCAA then went to the WHL). There are always things to work on, and playing lesser competition can allow you to focus on things you couldn't trying to keep up with high-level players.
Makar Goes Fast
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a mangy Meowth
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Raistlin
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- Aug 25, 2006
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Yeah, I'm most surprised at Bjornfot, I thought he's a low ceiling pick, poor man's Tanev, but he is doing very well at King's camp. I agree that Byram was sent down because of a deeper backend for colorado. He still has the highest ceiling compared to them no doubt, but I used to think he was heads and shoulders above the rest of his grad class, only a couple months later, they may already be more tightly packed then I initially gave them credit for.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
Not getting the issue with sending him back to the WHL? He is 18, there is more for him to do there, and there is not reason he won’t develop effectively there.
What is the rush anyway?
What is the rush anyway?
We can attribute it to Byram having been overrated for the longest time. Like I said pre-draft, there's no logical reason to have Byram ranked over Heinola. Well, my sample size's 1-2 games here.
Still though, you have to wonder how long we're going to see CHL Ds rated so highly. If we look at recent disappointments, just about all of them are from there. Not that Byram is one at this point, but yeah. Strange.
If your sample size is only 1-2 games than you probably shouldn't be making such grand statements.
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