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Bowen Byram trade grades: Blackhawks take big gamble moving top-5 pick

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Bowen Byram trade grades: Blackhawks take big gamble moving top-5 pick

Trades are starting to fly in the NHL in the lead-up to the 2026 draft, including a big one Tuesday night that saw a playoff team leap into the top five.

The Chicago Blackhawks sent the fourth overall pick, a second-round pick and defenseman Louis Crevier to the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Bowen Byram and forward Jordan Greenway.

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Who won the deal, and what does it mean? We break it down:

This … is a really big gamble by Chicago. The Blackhawks had the fourth overall pick because they have been, uh, really bad. They haven’t qualified for the playoffs in a full 82-game season since 2017 and despite showing an 11-point improvement in 2025-26, they were still the second-worst team in the league.

Is Byram, the focal point of this deal, good enough to justify the cost? He’s a good player, no doubt, recording a career-high 42 points this past season. A former fourth overall pick himself in 2019, Byram, who just turned 25, has also now been traded twice already in his career − perhaps an indication of how his teams have valued him.

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He’ll likely pile up points on the back end in an expanded role … which could have the 2027 unrestricted free agent looking at a hefty contract extension if a deal isn’t already in the works. If he accelerates Chicago’s rebuild and leads to a true playoff return, perhaps it will all be worth it.

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That’s a big if, though. For Buffalo, it’s hard to look at this deal as anything other than a big win.

The Sabres just made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years and nearly pushed to the conference final, falling in overtime of Game 7 in the second round. They now will add a premium young talent to their roster in the immediate or not-too-distant future in exchange for a defenseman who’d been a past subject of trade rumors and who clearly didn’t fit into the Sabres’ long-term plans.

Beyond resolving their question about Byram’s future, the Sabres also freed up significant cap space in this deal, with Byram’s number set for $6.25 million and Greenway − a hard-nosed veteran role player − set for $4 million. And Crevier isn’t nothing, either. The 25-year-old defenseman put up 25 points in 78 games, his -2 the best mark by any defenseman on Chicago’s roster.

This feels like a move that should help the Sabres build on their breakthrough season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bowen Byram trade grades, analysis of Sabres-Blackhawks deal

Read the full article here

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