The St. Louis Blues have been one of the teams closely linked to Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bo Byram throughout the offseason. It makes sense for the Blues to kick the tires on Byram as St. Louis' blue line is a bit older heading into the 2025-26 season.
Byram needed a new contract as a restricted free agent and was set to go to arbitration with the Sabres to get one. However, the Sabres avoided arbitration with Byram by signing him to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $6.25 million.
The two-year deal for Byram will get the defenseman straight to free agency once the contract expires. If the 24-year-old Byram is able to stay healthy and prove that he can play top-pair minutes, he'll be due for quite the pay raise in the 2027 offseason.
So where does that leave the Blues in all of this?
Well, the Sabres now have a decent portion of their cap tied up in a handful of defensemen.
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin is locked up through 2032 with a cap hit of $11 million. Owen Power is right behind him at $8.35 million per year through 2031. Then there is Mattias Samuelsson, who could be a buyout candidate for Buffalo due to his $4.28 million cap hit through 2030.
The Sabres have already made a trade this offseason involving a player, JJ Peterka, who wanted a big payday as a restricted free agent. It's clear that while the salary cap is rising, Buffalo isn't necessarily one of the teams that will spend up to it.
That could be good news for the Blues.
Buffalo is once again maintaining that it will try to compete next season in what has become a very tough Atlantic Division. If the Sabres don't get off to a hot start, and are out of the mix at the turn of the calendar, expect Byram to once again find his name in rumors.
The Blues could very well still be in the mix for Byram throughout next season and especially next offseason if the Sabres start another rebuild.
For now, the Blues should be just fine without Byram on their blue line.