Contrary to what it may have felt like while the overwhelming majority of the Blackhawks fan base was crashing out from Tuesday night’s news — this author among them — there is a world where all of this works, where the Bowen Byram trade is not viewed through lenses so tinted with disdain as it is right now.
The problem is that it takes an incredible amount of squinting to get to that perspective.
Of course it can work! Just about every sports trade can work, in theory. Byram’s arrival makes him the veteran presence on Chicago’s blue line: while he’s just eight days younger than the next candidate — Alex Vlasic — Byram’s appeared in 68 more regular season games and 40 more postseason games while averaging over 20 minutes a night in both categories, an amount of ice time that typically isn’t awarded to subpar defensemen. He’s won a Cup with Colorado. He was a huge part of Buffalo’s breakout season and playoff run in 2025-26. He’s more battle-tested than just about anyone on the Hawks roster. With Byram’s offensive skills in Chicago, the power play can find a gear it did not last season led by Byram meshing with Connor Bedard to befuddle opposing PK units. Similar talents will help the Hawks at 5-on-5, too, as Byram’s excellent abilities in the transition game will aid his new team in moving the puck into the offensive zone and actually keeping it there for a change, allowing the blossoming forward talent on the roster to go to work at that end of the ice more often than it has before.
Speaking of those forwards, they’re all due for a collective step ahead this season based on their average still likely not old enough to legally buy a drink in the US. Bedard has room to grow. Frank Nazar has room to grow. Anton Frondell has room to grow. Oliver Moore has room to grow. Nick Lardis has room to grow. Ryan Greene has room to grow. Roman Kantserov remains the biggest wild card, but his lofty numbers in the KHL at such a young age suggest he’s ready for a strong debut season in the NHL. Combine those guys with some veteran support from Tyler Bertuzzi and a more productive season from Teuvo and that all adds up to a team which should be capable of finishing higher than No. 31 in the standings for a fourth straight season.
Stop squinting now.
The other side of that coin turns dark in a hurry. Consider that last season’s Blackhawks team was giving up shots and chances at some of the highest rates in the league and two of the players who were better at suppressing those events are now skating for Edmonton with no replacement evident in the lineup as of this writing. Byram appears to be a fine hockey player, but a defensive stalwart he is not. Who’s going to play defense on this team? We saw last season that Spencer Knight’s heroics can only go so far.
And, yeah, Byram is going to boost the team’s offensive capabilities, but there’s still a dearth of proven top-six talent at forward: Bedard’s the only one truly worthy of that label right now. Nazar needs a breakout third season to claim it. Kantserov might be another. Frondell can get there but he’s also a teenager. Lardis and Moore seemed to be trending more towards middle-six than top-six, and same goes for Greene. Bertuzzi and Teuvo aren’t getting any younger. Any other possible help from within the system (Vaclav Nestrasil, Marek Vanacker, Mason West, Nathan Behm) is still at least one season away, if not several. We’re still asking the same question we’ve been asking since the summer of 2023: who’s going to play with Connor Bedard? And now the team no longer has what was probably its most valuable bargaining piece in a No. 4 overall pick. Such a trade suggests the Hawks are ready to start moving forward immediately but there’s little evidence suggesting this acquisition plugs the massive leak which would allow this ship to finally set sail.
We could also entertain the idea that another move’s coming. Perhaps Byram’s acquisition means GM Kyle Davidson can package another D prospect or two — perhaps even one of the team’s own former top-10 selections — with some future first-round picks and land that coveted top-six forward which remains the millstone around this team’s neck. Maybe that’s the deal that finally pieces this together into an assembled puzzle that doesn’t require so hard of a squint to envision a successful 2026-27 season.
Right now, though, it feels like you have to squint so hard that you end up with your eyes closed.