Is Bowen Byram's career in jeopardy?
Bowen Byram is one of the most promising young players in the NHL. He's scored 11 points this season in 18 games, but he's also suffered a concussion that's reared it's ugly head on multiple occasions. Byram, 20, was selected 4th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2019 and has done nothing but excel ever since.
Byram admitted last summer that he'd already begun to contemplate life after hockey. In an interview with Peter Baugh from The Athletic Byram shared the following memory.
"What am I going to do now? (He asked his mother) I can't play hockey anymore."
"After I skated, I felt like I was a corpse. I was dizzy, couldn't see. It was crazy. It was like somebody was pounding on my head. It was tough, and everything snowballed on top of it."
Byram was eventually cleared to play and begun the start of the season and was playing extremely well. That was until an errant elbow from Bo Horvat caught Byram in the head on November 11th.
Byram has only got into 7 games since and has continued to battle post concussion syndrome. Headaches, dizziness and other symptoms have kept Byram off the ice and for the most part out of the lineup.
Today Avs coach Jared Bednar said the following:
"I don't know how long he's going to be out for. He didn't play because of personal reasons. That's basically all I know, so we'll respect that."
Bednar shared that Byram's absence has been to personal reasons, but it's already been reported by multiple sources and confirmed by family that the concussion that's plagued Byram has returned with symptoms once again.
Peter Baugh also spoke to Bowen's father Shawn who shared that:
The defenseman doesn't have a new concussion but is dealing with lingering issues likely stemming from his past concussion problems. It got to the point where he didn't feel he could play yesterday.
At some point we have to start to wonder if this is the end of Byram's career, even at 20-years-old we need to ask is this the end of Byram's career? When does quality of life and CTE become a real conversation?
Byram has considered retirement before, so we have to wonder will he consider it again. For his sake and for fans of the game we hope not, but his health should always come first.
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