Sabres, Mammoth elect salary arbitration with Bowen Byram, Jack McBain

Much like how players can elect for salary arbitration as an attempt to gain leverage in a contract negotiation, so can teams, although it isn’t utilized nearly as much. While it works to assist in getting a negotiation more organized when the two parties are far apart, it also prevents the player from signing an offer sheet with another team.

Byram is a restricted free agent after the conclusion of his two-year contract with a $3.875 cap hit. While he hasn’t requested a trade, it appears that both him and the Sabres are pursuing a path to moving on. That said, electing for arbitration does get in the way of that, especially when there were rumours that Byram could receive an offer sheet. He’s currently projected to get a five-year contract with a $7,170,856 cap hit.

Byram is coming off of a career year in 2024-25, where he had seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points in 82 games with the Sabres. While his goal total was down from previous years, he nearly doubled his assist totals, allowing him to surpass his previous career high of 29 points set in 2023-24.

McBain is an RFA coming off of a two-year contract with a $1,599,999 cap hit. He’s also coming off of a career year which saw him get 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points in 82 games. He’s currently projected to get a three-year contract with a $3,049,923 cap hit.

Byram and McBain join the 11 players who elected for salary arbitration on Saturday, that being Lukas Dostal & Drew Helleson (Anaheim Ducks), Conor Timmins (Sabres), Arvid Soderblom (Chicago Blackhawks), Jayden Struble (Montreal Canadiens), Maksim Tsyplakov (New York Islanders), Kaapo Kakko (Seattle Kraken), Nick Robertson (Toronto Maple Leafs), and Morgan Barron, Dylan Samberg & Gabriel Vilardi (Winnipeg Jets).

The dates for the arbitration cases will be announced at a later date.