As teammates wished Kurtis MacDermid a happy birthday in the Avalanche practice facility locker room March 25, Bo Byram piped in. With a mischievous grin, he implored reporters in the room to shower MacDermid with attention, making sure to point out the enforcer’s age. MacDermid was turning 29.
A week later as Jack Johnson reached his 1,100th career game and was asked the secret to his longevity, Byram interrupted from his stall: “Hanging out with young guys.”
The reminders are constant that Byram is still only 21 years old, even as the Avalanche defenseman makes that harder to believe on a nightly basis. Byram is unhindered right now, and he’s becoming increasingly unleashed.
Already one of the most talented players on a stacked Colorado roster, he has the green light from coaches and from the team’s structure to be as assertive as he wants offensively. He built trust with a steady, reliable 20-game playoff resume last year: no goals but nine assists, a league-leading plus-15 on the ice and a Stanley Cup Final with 17 hits and nine blocks.
He’s capitalizing on the trust by adding scoring to his game.
Byram is fresh off his first career goal streak, which lasted three games. He has five points in the last five games, 18 in the last 28 since returning from a three-month injury, and 23 points (10 goals) in 38 games this season. If and when he finally is healthy enough to play a full season, the offensive upside for his age is nearing Cale Makar levels.
Byram attributes the recent surge to more “maturity in my game – I’d like to think that, anyway.” There’s more to it, though.
“I’ve just been trying to shoot the puck more,” he said. “I think I over-pass a little bit, so just focusing on getting the puck to the net from all over the ice. Give our forwards a chance to get there and battle for a rebound.”
What did coach Jared Bednar think of that self-evaluation from Byram?
“I mean, I always thought he was a good shooter and shot it on a regular basis, watching him in junior. … I never really had a problem with his shot selection or pass selection. But if it was in his head, he’d know a little bit more,” Bednar said.
Byram’s shot selection and his shot itself certainly seem to be improving, even if the sheer quantity of shots is relatively similar. (Last season, he averaged 3.4 shot attempts per game. This year, he averages 3.39.) The percentage of his shots that are on target is up a percentage point. More importantly, his shooting percentage is up from 10.2% to 15.9%.
It’s partially a product of Byram being invited to join breakouts more often, pushing the envelope into the offensive zone. That’s how the Avs (and most teams) do business these days. Colorado is just better at it than almost everyone else. No team has gotten more point production from its defensemen this season.
“Bedsy’s never said anything about staying back, hanging back,” Byram said. “… I think if you look at a lot of the good teams, you’ll see their D are very active.”
It’s funny, actually, Byram thinks. Assistant coach Nolan Pratt sometimes tells Byram he needs to be jumping into the rush more than he already does.
“It’s just too hard to create offense with just three players,” Bednar said. “Going 3 vs. 3 or 3 vs. 4 all the time when teams get above (the rush), you need extra guys involved. And that kind of leads to our offensive attack. … Create movement, confusion, so sometimes it looks like we’re just skating around. But there’s guidelines to the structure of what we want to do.
“Not every defenseman will have a ton of success playing for our team creating offensively. But the guys that we have, we’ve kind of molded and built that system around those guys.”
Byram was too young to build a system around when the Avs started establishing that identity in recent years. Makar had debuted in the NHL before Byram was even drafted. But mirroring Makar, Byram has fast-tracked his ability to fit the mold.
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.
