Bowen Byram is an underwhelming “big addition” for Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks and general manager Kyle Davidson made an all-in move on Tuesday, acquiring defenseman Bowen Byram from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for the No. 4 overall pick in Friday night’s NHL Draft, the No. 45 overall pick in the second round and defenseman Louis Crevier.
The move, which also delivered winger Jordan Greenway to the Windy City, represents an acceleration of the Blackhawks’ rebuild around 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard.
Byram, who has played behind the likes of Cale Makar and Rasmus Dahlin throughout his career, will get the opportunity to be a true No. 1 defenseman on a team that desperately needs it, but he has not shown the defensive IQ and ability to suggest that he can be a bonafide star to this point.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the bold move, and whether or not this was the best use of Chicago’s assets.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Chicago Blackhawks sending the fourth overall pick to the Buffalo Sabres in a deal for Bowen Byram… that’s fourth overall, and a second round pick this year. Hutts, this one was mind-blowing from a whole bunch of different perspectives, but to what you were alluding to earlier, teams know they are not getting quality on the free agent market. They have to do it on the trade market. It is driving prices through the roof, and there is no better example than this. I was jaw-on-the-floor stunned when I saw what Chicago gave up for Byram.
Carter Hutton: So you figure from the Buffalo side, Bowen Byram, you have a good D-corp, you move them out. Jordan Greenway is kind of a salary dump. He makes $4 million playing on your fourth line during the playoffs, and Bowen Byram wants to be that number one guy, but from the Chicago Blackhawk standpoint, like dealing the fourth pick is a wild take here. I think for Buffalo, they are loaded up here. It will be interesting to see what they do with that pick… A bit of a head scratcher if you’re in Chicago, and you’re Connor Bedard where they don’t have anybody really riding shotgun with him yet either, Ty.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Well, and that’s where I wanted to go next, Hutts… Chicago has like a ton of young defensemen. So like on one hand, I do understand that you go get a guy like Byram who’s a little bit further along in his career, right? 25 years old. He’s played a number of seasons now for a few different teams. He wants to be a number one D-man somewhere. He wants to run a top unit power play, all that stuff. Like I can understand the fit for Byram in Chicago, but you look back at that draft a few years ago when they didn’t take Ivan Demidov and they took Artyom Levshunov because they wanted to get another big name D-man and everyone was sitting there going like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, but that’s Connor Bedard’s linemate for the next 10 years in Demidov. Like why don’t you go grab that guy?’ No, you give up the second or you use the second overall pick on a D-man, and now you sit here and to give up an asset as premium as that fourth overall pick. And now to come out of this draft and not potentially have a strong, young linemate that Connor Bedard can kind of grow with for the next decade. I think that’s a really big mistake. Like there were Hawks fans who went into this offseason being like, ‘Oh, could we get our hands on Brady Tkachuk if he shakes loose?’ I just think Byram, again, he’s a totally fine player, but for what I think Hawks fans wanted and for what I think the Hawks need this offseason, this is just underwhelming.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…