Bowen Byrams up-and-down start with the Avalanche has included one big positive -

DENVER — Bowen Byram sat at his Ball Arena locker, fielding questions from reporters. When asked about how refreshing it’s been to have a season of good health, the 22-year-old didn’t miss a beat. He reached up and knocked five times on the wood panel of his stall.

“Throughout my injuries, I’ve learned a lot about taking care of my body, warming up, nutrition,” he said. “I feel like everything is kind of starting to come together here, and hopefully my play continues to elevate and we can win some games down the stretch into Christmas.”

Drafted No. 4 overall in 2019, Byram has played all 26 Avalanche games this season and crossed 100 career games in November. The defenseman’s good health has been a silver lining in a self-described rocky start to the season.

During parts 2020-21 and 2021-22, his first two NHL seasons, Byram dealt with concussion issues and at points struggled to feel like himself both on and off the ice. He then was out nearly half of 2022-23 with a lower-body injury. In total, he missed 126 games to injury through his first three years with the Avalanche.

Byram’s teammates know his injury history, which is why forward Logan O’Connor didn’t hesitate to retaliate when Anaheim’s Max Jones caught Byram with a high hit on Tuesday night. O’Connor skated at Jones immediately after the play and shoved him into the boards. He acknowledged postgame that Byram’s past with concussions played into his reaction.

“Regardless of (whether) it’s clean or dirty, you want to step in there and make a presence and let the guys know that you can’t hit some of our top players,” O’Connor said. “Especially him.”

O’Connor got sent to the penalty box for roughing, and Jones sustained an upper-body injury and missed the rest of the game, as well as Thursday’s Anaheim-Chicago contest. Byram missed the third period against the Ducks with an upper-body injury, though coach Jared Bednar clarified postgame that it wasn’t related to his head. The young defenseman returned to the lineup Thursday, picking up an assist in a loss to the Jets.

At his best, Byram is a top-pairing-level defenseman. He showed that in his play after he recovered from his concussions in time for the team’s 2022 Stanley Cup run. Over the course of 20 playoff games, he tied Connor McDavid and Gabriel Landeskog for the highest plus-minus rating in the postseason (plus-15).

“He can be a dominant player,” Bednar said early this season.

But Byram hasn’t consistently found that level to start 2023-24. His scoring rate per 60 minutes is down (1.03 this season compared to 1.57 in 2022-23), as is his point-per-game rate (0.35 this season compared to 0.57 the previous two). Fewer power-play opportunities have potentially led to that downtick. He’s been on the ice for 16.7 percent of available power-play minutes, compared to 26 percent last season, per Evolving-Hockey. Colorado’s second unit, which Byram is on, often doesn’t have time to set up an actual formation before a power play ends.

Additionally, penalties have plagued Byram this season. He has taken 16 minor penalties on the year, second in the NHL to only Washington’s Tom Wilson. Of Byram’s 32 penalty minutes, 28 have come during a pair of five-game stretches. He took 14 penalty minutes in the first five games of the season, and Bednar said at the time he wasn’t using his feet enough. That led to him reaching in and taking penalties. In late November, Byram went through another five-game stretch in which he was in the penalty box for 14 minutes. Three of those came from puck over the glass delay-of-game penalties, but he shook off the notion that those are more unlucky than stick penalties.

“They’re still pretty stupid,” he said. “Obviously something you don’t want to be doing. It’s putting the team on the (penalty kill) too often, and in the first 20 or so games, I’ve been doing that quite a bit.”

Some of Byram’s early-season inconsistencies can be attributed to his position. Paired with Samuel Girard, he moved to his right side, despite being a natural left shot.

“It makes it difficult in the offensive zone picking up pucks off the wall,” he said. “In the neutral zone, you’re always turning to your uncomfortable side, you’re always on your bad leg crossing over. It just makes things kind of weird. … It’s hard to read the ice over your shoulder all the time.”

Girard, in the player assistance program, is currently away from the team, but his pairing with Byram had OK underlying numbers before he left. The Avalanche had 55.78 percent of the expected goals share in 177 minutes with them on the ice at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick, and they out-chanced and out-shot opponents. But the opposition outscored Colorado 11-7 during those minutes.

Byram said the experience of playing on his off side gave him more respect for Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen and Vegas’ Shea Thoedore, who do it and are, in Byram’s eyes, “superstars in the NHL.” Now he is back on the left, which he said is a breath of fresh air.

“I feel really comfortable over there,” he said.

In recent weeks, Byram’s play has seen an uptick. He has five points in the past nine games, and his Hockey Stats Cards game scores have been trending in a positive direction. He scored twice against Anaheim in Colorado’s recent road trip and called it one of his better games in a while.

(Hockey Stat Cards)

“I think there’s some real positives to his game,” Bednar said. “I think he’s been up and more involved and playing on his toes and using some of his strengths to his game to help our team. We need him to be able to help chip in on the offensive side of it, and he did that pretty well on this road trip.”

Both because of his draft position and his playoff heroics, Byram has set a high standard for himself. He knows that and is blunt when assessing how he’s played this season.

“Awful some games. Not bad some other games. OK other games,” said the defenseman, who has five goals and four assists on the year. “I feel like the last few games, I’ve started to play a little better. I’ve just got to continue to build.”

But injuries have, for once, not yet factored into his season. That, more than anything he’s done on the ice, is a huge positive for Colorado.

“I’ve seen some pretty good rehab people, exercise people that have a different approach to things,” Byram said. “I’ve just been kind of using things from everyone I’ve seen in my daily routine at the rink, at home. Nothing too crazy, but it’s been working, so I’ll stick with it.”

(Photo of Bowen Byram: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

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