Montreal Canadiens: Paul Byron’s Tragic Fall from Grace

Ask anyone two years ago about Paul Byron on the Montreal Canadiens, and they would say he is a valuable leader, penalty killer, mid-six option for the Habs. Today? You’d be lucky to find someone that says he’s more than a strict fourth liner, if not traded or bought out.

So what happened? How did two years take a player that was so valuable, to a player that some Canadiens fans would prefer off the team. Well, to fall from grace, you have to get up there first.

Paul Byron was drafted all the way back in 2007 by the Buffalo Sabres down in the 6th round. Third last in that 6th round to be exact. 2007 was a pretty good year for late draft picks.

Jamie Benn was taken in the 5th round, the 6th round brought regular NHLers Scott Darling, Patrick Maroon, Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino. Even the 7th round had two players with over 600 NHL games experience each, Justin Braun and Carl Gunnarsson.

Byron’s draft year was not a great one. Playing for the Gatineau Olympiques in the QMJHL, he recorded 21 goals and 23 assists for 44 points in 68 games. Not great numbers for the QMJHL, and that with his lack of size (listed as 5″9′ 165 pounds) is why he was taken so late in the draft.

It took Byron a few years to make the jump to the NHL, playing a few more years in Gatineau and a year in the AHL with the Portland Pirates before playing his first games with Buffalo. In the 2010-2011 season, he scored 1 goal and 1 assist in 8 games in the call up.

In the 2011 offseason, Byron was traded to the Calgary Flames with Chris Butler for Ales Kotalik, Robyn Regehr and a 2nd round pick. Chris Butler ended up playing 3 seasons with Calgary. Regehr played a year and a half in Buffalo. The second rounder became Jake McCabe, who’s had a decent little career in Buffalo, playing over 350 games for the Sabres.

Byron started in Calgary’s AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Heat before getting called up for the season in 2013-2014. He wasn’t great, scoring 7 goals and 21 points in his first year, and 6 goals and 19 points in the second.

Calgary was supposed to be bad in 2014-2015, as they were rebuilding, but surprised most people by making the playoffs. Paul Byron seemed to be a casualty of others playing well and was placed on waivers, to be claimed by the Montreal Canadiens.

Waivers are confusing. It all depends on the age of the player, when they signed their contract, and how many games they have played. Generally, waiver wire pick ups are not great. With the restrictions of younger players being exempt from waivers, usually teams know what they have and will not waive important players.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. There are good players that are placed on waivers, mostly do to the cap. Here’s a list of players that have hit the waiver wire, including Chris Kunitz, Ilya Bryzgalov and Mark Recchi.

While Paul Byron is not among those names, he is still among the more productive claims. His first year with the Canadiens had Byron scoring 11 goals and 18 points in 62 games, in his second full season in the NHL.

2016-2017 was the break out year for Byron, where he scored 22 goals and 21 assists in 81 games. The next year was similarly great, scoring 20 goals and 15 assists in 82 games.

Then, March of 2019 happened, and it all fell apart.

But first, we have to go back to January 2019. In a game against the Florida Panthers, Paul Byron plastered MacKenzie Weegar into the boards as Weegar was helpless and the main contact seemed to be the head. It garnered Byron a deserved three game suspension.

Byron isn’t known as a dirty player, and this was his first and so far only suspension. It was a suspendable offence, and the 3 games seemed like a more than fair punishment.

But, next time that the Canadiens played Florida was in March 2019. Weegar came a-knocking, and Byron answered the call, and he was knocked flat.

Unsurprisingly, Byron left the game after that fight. It was hard to watch Byron stumble and fall as the referee was escorting him off the ice. The worst part, is that it was totally unnecessary.

The league had already punished Byron pretty harshly for the original hit. But it is also not necessarily Weegar’s fault either. It is something that has been bred into hockey players since the league began. It has been told time and time again that if someone gets hit, you or one of your teammates must step up and fight, or its seen as a loss.

Seeing Byron knocked out like that, anyone could tell that he would be missing time long term. But I don’t think that anyone could predict that we could still see the effects today.

Since the end of the 2018-2019 season, Byron scored 8 goals and 24 points in two seasons. He scored almost as many goals in each of the last two seasons than he has points in his most recent two seasons combined.

And the eye test tells the same story. Byron has lost a step. The speed is still there, but it is a step behind where it once was. There is just something missing from his game, and it went away with that fight against Weegar.

Will Paul Byron ever return to form? Jury is out, but every year that goes by, the less likely it becomes. Byron is already 31, and not every player can be Jeff Petry. Statistically, Byron is leaving his prime. The problem? He is signed through 2023 for $3.4 million per year.

That is not an easy contract to move. To get rid of it, Bergevin would have to give up a major sweetner and probably not get much in return. He is a prime candidate for a buy-out. It is a shame, and we will never know what would have happened without that fight. There is always hope that he can turn it around, but that hope is fading fast.