Bowen Byram was supposed to give the Blackhawks something they’ve been chasing for a while: a real difference-maker on the back end. Instead, the trade that brought him to Chicago is already turning into a headache for Kyle Davidson.
Byram arrived after helping Buffalo reach its first playoff berth since 2011, and Davidson made no secret of how highly he viewed the defenseman. He called Byram “a potential No. 1 defenseman, there aren’t many pieces around the league that are more valuable than that.”
But as of Nov. 6, Byram still hasn’t played since Oct. 13 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and there’s no timeline for when he’ll be back.
The situation has only gotten messier. On Oct. 31, before Chicago’s game in Boston against the Bruins, insider Frank Seravalli reported that Byram had been cleared to play but didn’t feel comfortable doing so.
Then on Nov. 3, the Blackhawks placed him on injured reserve. After practice, head coach Jeff Blashill said Byram was “seeing a specialist for the mysterious upper-body injury” and has not been medically cleared to play.
That absence has forced Blashill to keep shuffling the blue line, trying different combinations to cover for Byram’s spot. None of it has really clicked.
Chicago has looked flat, and the team still hasn’t shown much in the way of life or competitiveness. The game in Boston on Halloween was the closest the Blackhawks have come to looking like a team with a pulse all season.
The price Chicago paid makes the situation sting even more. Shortly after the 2026 NHL Draft, the Blackhawks sent Buffalo big defenseman Louis Crevier and the fourth-overall pick to get Byram. The appeal was obvious: Byram had just posted a career-high 42 points, including 11 goals and 31 assists, and Chicago badly needed offense from the back end.
But the trade is only part of the problem. The bigger issue is that the Blackhawks still aren’t winning. They remain winless on the road after being swept in the Florida series, their first back-to-back of the season.
That’s why the conversation around the team is drifting beyond the roster. The obvious answer right now is to make changes in both management and coaching. Patrick Kane’s return was supposed to help young linemates find scoring chances, but he’s now out with an injury.
Chicago’s last playoff appearance outside the bubble year in 2020 came in 2016-17, when it was swept by the Nashville Predators. This season was supposed to be the beginning of gradual progress, with Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov playing their first full seasons in the league. Their starts have looked promising for the future, but that doesn’t erase what’s happening now.
On Nov. 4, on a national broadcast, TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette didn’t hold back. “I don’t see a lot of identity.
I see a soft team. They don’t check well, they don’t forecheck well.
They don’t really do anything well,” he said.
For a fan base already frustrated by the start, the Byram situation is just the latest reason to be angry. Davidson has done well drafting prospects, but more young talent isn’t going to fix the current mess when most of those players are still in college or elsewhere. The Blackhawks need more than patience at this point.
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One name drawing attention elsewhere is Detroit restricted free agent defenseman Simon Edvinsson, who has been skating in Nashville while the Predators have reportedly shown interest. The Sharks have also been linked to him, though talks with Detroit have not gotten far and his agency has not commented on any trade chatter, leaving the broader deadline picture unsettled as Chicago waits to see whether the market opens in a way that fits its needs. [Read more 🡒]