Why Bo Byram is more likely to play pro this season

Good observation from colleague Scott MacDonald the other day, about Avalanche top prospect defenseman Bo Byram:

This could be HUGE for Bowen Byram and the Avs.

Byram will get time at NHL camp, can play 6 games w/ the big boys w/o burning a year of ELC, then send him to AHL once (if) that gets going.

NHL time and AHL time. He avoids stagnating in the WHL for another year. Win-win-win. https://t.co/Hnp2CsY203

— Scott MacDonald (@0ffScottFree) December 23, 2020

Byram has spent the last three full seasons playing for the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, and has another year of junior eligibility left. Normally, because he’s still only 19, he would not be eligible to play in the American Hockey League, for the Colorado Eagles. But, because this is 2020 and nothing is normal, Byram may be allowed to play in Loveland for the regular season. That is, if the AHL has a regular season, that is.

Everything with the AHL and the WHL is still in limbo, as far as return to play dates. The AHL is hoping to start play on Feb. 5, but that is just a hope at this point. The WHL had hoped to restart on Jan. 8, but that now has been pushed back to…well, no one knows exactly.

So, this could make for a situation where Byram – currently an alternate captain with Team Canada at the World Junior tournament in Edmonton – gets to play pro hockey soon, either with the Avs or with the Eagles. Or, he may still go back to the WHL. Lots of unanswered questions still.

As Scott said, Byram could play six games with the Avs, without the first year of his entry-level contract kicking in. I really doubt that he’ll play a seventh game (that’s the reduced number, not the 10 games normally) with the Avs, because I do think Joe Sakic is going to want that contract to slide another year. That could change if Byram just knocks it out of the park with his play in those six games, or if some long-term injuries happen to some regular Avs defensemen.

Maybe Byram would just be a taxi squad player and stay with the Avs all year, but the only way I can see that happening is if the AHL and/or WHL is still shut down beyond, say, February or March. The Avs are going to want Byram to play hockey – somewhere. But if there is no place to play, then being on a taxi squad would have to do, and if the Avs have to burn a year off the ELC, then that’s life.

You can see Byram play Saturday, when Canada plays Germany in a World Junior preliminary round game. Avs prospects Justin Barron and Alex Newhook also are on the Canadian team.