Kyle Davidson has spent this offseason acting like a general manager with a clear plan and a willingness to spend real capital to chase it. The Blackhawks have already seen him take aggressive swings at the NHL Draft with defenseman Xavier Villeneuve and forward Ryan Roobroeck, then add defenseman Ian Cole on a one-year deal and forward Cole Smith on a three-year contract when July 1 arrived.
But none of that matched the shock value of the move that brought Bowen Byram to Chicago. Davidson sent the fourth overall pick to the Buffalo Sabres in a blockbuster trade for the defenseman, then watched Byram sign a six-year extension at a $12.5 average annual value (AAV) on July 1.
That deal makes him the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL, and it begins in the 2027-28 season. Byram is in the final year of his current contract heading into this season, where he’ll make $6.25 million.
The move came with obvious risk. Trading the fourth pick is rare - the last time it happened was in 2008 - and the numbers don’t exactly scream certainty.
Byram had 42 points, with 11 goals and 32 assists, in 82 regular-season games last season, then added seven points in 13 playoff games. He also posted a 0.51 wins above replacement (WAR), which ranked 97th among defensemen in the league.
The concern is simple: his game has been more dangerous on offense than dependable in his own end, and that’s a problem for a Blackhawks team that struggled badly in the defensive zone.
In the 2025-26 campaign, Chicago ranked 27th in defensive zone time and 31st in offensive zone time. If the Blackhawks spend too much time pinned back, Byram may not be the clean fix.
Still, Davidson made the bet anyway, making it clear he wanted the player he believed in and was willing to ignore the analytics to get him. It was also the first time he had gone after a major asset in a bidding war with that kind of aggression.
The Blackhawks are banking on the 25-year-old to grow into a role he has never really had before. In Colorado, he was behind Cale Makar.
In Buffalo, he was paired behind Rasmus Dahlin and played with 2021 first-overall pick Owen Power. Chicago is hoping this is the stop where Byram can finally take on the No. 1 defenseman job and keep improving.
The other huge piece of Davidson’s summer is still unresolved: Connor Bedard’s next contract. That remains the real pressure point of the offseason. Bedard had surgery on his left shoulder on July 8 after a fall while practicing in Vancouver, which pushed the timeline back a bit, but the expectation is that he’ll return in November and miss only the first month or so of the season.
Even with the injury, there’s no real concern about Bedard staying in Chicago. The fact that he has not signed an offer sheet by now is being read as a sign of commitment to the Blackhawks.
Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet and five-year deal worth $18 million AAV changed the market, though, and Bedard should be in line for something in that neighborhood. Davidson would likely prefer to have locked him in before Carlsson reset the price, but Bedard is the face of the franchise and should become the highest-paid player in team history.
By the time the summer ends, Davidson could have committed roughly $30 million in AAV to Byram and Bedard alone, the two players he views as future stars at opposite ends of the ice. Chicago will also have about $12 million in cap space, its lowest amount since the rebuild began. Davidson has already made his biggest moves of the offseason, and he still has work to do before September.
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