One of the quieter but more important moves the Chicago Blackhawks made this offseason was bringing in Bowen Byram, a 25-year-old defenseman coming over from the Buffalo Sabres. He arrives with real pedigree: the fourth overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, a 2022 Stanley Cup champion, and a player who has not missed a game over the last two seasons.
Byram also comes to Chicago on the heels of the best offensive year of his NHL career. He finished with 11 goals, 42 points, and a plus-15 rating, then added five game winners, which tied for second-most on the Sabres. That production helped Buffalo capture the Atlantic Division crown.
His first NHL goal came in a memorable spot. Byram debuted with the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 21, 2021, against the Los Angeles Kings and went without a goal in his first 19 games. Then, in the season opener on Oct. 13, 2021, against the Blackhawks, he scored for the first time in a 4-2 win over Marc-Andre Fleury.
Since then, he has found the net against 30 different goalies. That list includes Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, and Linus Ullmark, who has allowed the most goals to Byram with four.
There’s also a draft comparison that puts Byram in an interesting lane. At the 2019 NHL Draft, 66 defensemen were selected, and 36 of them had played at least one NHL game by July 2026.
Two of the first six picks were defensemen - Byram at No. 4 and Moritz Seider at No. 6 - and their scoring totals have since gone in different directions. Heading into the 2026-27 season, Seider holds a 250-152 edge in points, while Byram has the better plus/minus at plus-41 to minus-17.
The two are nearly even in penalty minutes, with Seider at 222 and Byram at 220.
Byram’s resume goes well beyond the NHL. At 14, he captained the Lethbridge Golden Hawks in the AMBHL in 2014-15. The next season, he piled up 22 goals and 59 points, helped his team win a championship, and took home league Top Defenseman honors along with Alberta Hockey Player of the Year recognition.
That was only the start of the hardware. Byram also earned a CSSHL U18 Top Defenseman nod, a U17 WHC All-Star selection, the CHL Top Draft Prospect Award, and spots on both the WHL First and Second All-Star Teams. At the World Juniors, he was a one-time All-Star and a Top 3 Player on the team.
Internationally, he added a bronze medal at the WCBC, gold at the U16 WCCC, gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and gold and silver medals at the U20 WJC.
Even his hometown ties are notable. According to Hockey Reference, only 15 players born in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada have played an NHL game.
That group includes Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska and Hockey Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman. Yzerman, with three Stanley Cup rings and 1,755 points, stands alone as one of the great B.C.-born players.
Byram is already climbing that Cranbrook list. At 25, he has 152 points in 328 games, which puts him fifth among players from the city, behind Don Murdoch (238), Bob Murdoch (157), and Ray Allison (157). Dryden Hunt is the only other active NHL player on the list, and Byram has a path to move up to second behind Yzerman.
There’s even a family connection to Chicago. Byram’s father, Shawn Byram, was a fourth-round pick of the New York Islanders in 1986 and made his NHL debut on Feb.
24, 1991. He played four games with New York that season, picked up no points, and logged 16 penalty minutes.
On Aug. 15, 1991, he signed with the Blackhawks as a free agent and appeared in one game against the Minnesota North Stars on Nov. 3, 1991.
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