Blackhawks’ Bowen Byram Trade Is Looking Bad for Kyle Davidson

Defenseman Bowen Byram was fresh off helping the Buffalo Sabres to their first playoff berth since 2011 when he got traded to the Chicago Blackhawks.

General manager Kyle Davidson saw Byram as “a potential No. 1 defenseman, there aren’t many pieces around the league that are more valuable than that.” Fast forward to now, Nov. 6, Byram hasn’t played a game since Oct. 13 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and there’s still no given timeline for his return.

The Trade Is Coming Back to Bite Davidson and Management

It’s no secret to Hawks fans that Byram’s start has been disappointing. One update on Oct. 31 prior to Chicago’s game in Boston against the Bruins, insider Frank Seravalli said that Byram was reportedly cleared to play; he just didn’t feel comfortable doing so.

Byram was placed on injured reserve (IR) on Nov. 3. Head coach Jeff Blashill said after practice that he was “seeing a specialist for the mysterious upper-body injury” and has not been medically cleared to play, which would explain the IR stint.

“You pretty much know what you’re getting every night with [Ian] Cole. That’s a good feeling as a coach — to know when he goes out, you know what you’re getting,” Blashill said. “The last four or five games, Kaiser has been really good. [He] certainly still isn’t without a mistake, but that’s probably nobody,” (from ‘Blackhawks defenseman Bowen Byram now seeing specialist as injury saga continues’, Chicago Sun Times, Nov. 2, 2026).

Because of his long absence, Blashill has been experimenting with different defensemen to fill in Byram’s spot in the defensive pairings. However, neither of them really worked, and the team has shown no signs of life or competitiveness on the ice. The game in Boston on Halloween was the closest they’ve been to showing life on the ice all season long.

Where Does Chicago Go Now?

Chicago paid a pretty high price to acquire Byram shortly after the 2026 NHL Draft, which featured sending big defenseman Louis Crevier to Buffalo and their fourth-overall pick. Byram had a career-high 42 points (11 goals, 31 assists) last season, so naturally, when it comes to a team struggling with finding offensive defensemen, Davidson saw this as an opportunity to strike.

It’s not just this trade coming back to bite in Chicago, but it’s the problem of still not finding winning hockey. The Hawks remain winless on the road after being swept in the Florida series, their first back-to-back of the season.

The obvious answer right now is to make changes in both management and coaching. When Patrick Kane returned to help young linemates see scoring opportunities, he’s now out due to injury.

Chicago’s last playoff appearance, excluding the bubble year in 2020, was the 2016-17 season when they were swept by the Nashville Predators. The team can’t keep using the word “rebuild” as an excuse for their start to this season. This was supposed to be the start of slowly improving their record with guys like Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov playing their first full seasons in the league. Their starts have still looked promising for the future, but that’s another excuse that can’t be used.

On Nov. 4, on a national broadcast, TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette went on about the start for Chicago. “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.

Fans have the right to be frustrated with the current state of the team, and a change in coaching just might do more good, along with targeting another scoring winger around the trade deadline. Davidson has been good at drafting prospects, but drafting more young players isn’t going to solve the season struggles when most of them are either in college or another league.