I can't believe there is so much negativity towards this trade... No wait it's HF Sabres - of course I can.
With TT/Cozens already signed long term there was simply no room for Mitts to join them. Mitts wasn't ever being extended long term. Surely that should be obvious? Would it have been better to walk him to UFA & lose him for nothing? Either way - it's not like there is a dearth of offensively talented forwards in the pipeline to replace his production...
We badly needed another bona fide top 4 D & we needed to make a big 'Ffor D' type trade for what seems like forever. Byram might not be the guy any of us were expecting - but now that it happened i really like it. Forget about handedness - the guy is a stud in the making. A top 4 comprising he, Dahlin & Power is tantalising, the type of core perennial contenders are built upon. A competent coach will make it work.
I agree that we now likely need to acquire another centre unless you really believe in Krebs. But the centre we need is a completely different type of player to Mitts.
Mitts was an effective forward anywhere in the top 6/top 9. He wasn’t just a center. He also spent about a seasons worth of time over the last two seasons as our #1 center. First filling in for an injured Tage at the end of last season and then stepping up for an injured Tage/struggling Cozens for the bulk of this season. There was certainly a place for him on the roster had they kept him.
I don’t know if it was your intent, but you seem to be dismissing his loss as something easily replaced by the talent in the system. We have no one who can step up as the #1 center anytime soon. Nor will the type of center we acquire this offseason likely be the type capable of that. Hopefully it won’t matter.
I find it ironic when posters argue there wasn’t a spot for Mitts due to Tage/Cozens. Yet they miss the parallel situation with Byram due to Dahlin/Power. It’s not that you can’t or shouldn’t have either player. It’s just that the situations aren’t that common. So it’s pretty weird to see an argument using depth/future contract against Mitts while praising the addition of Byram. Who is in a similar situation at a different position.
We needed a better defensive dman than Joker in the top 4. Preferably one with size, physicality and experience would be good too. Basically an experienced Sammy with hopefully better durability. Teams rarely have dman of Dahlin’s level, let alone another one with that upside (Power). It’s pretty hard to argue we had a need for the type of dman Byram is.
The point of the above is that there are legit hockey reasons to have an issue with this trade. That said………
I get the logic behind the trade and it was fair value. Adams thinks he’s rounded out his top 4 dmen by adding Byram. I’m skeptical he’s the answer but I know he’s a very talent kid with a lot of upside. I’m going to wait for the roster building to play out as well as what Lindy does before making any final judgement on the trade. I’m keeping an open mind.