The eventual Quinn Hughes extension will take pressure off Blackhawks, Bowen Byram

The Chicago Blackhawks shocked the NHL world twice in a short span of time. What's especially funny is that both surprises involved the same player.

The first surprise was the trade, where the Blackhawks sent the fourth-overall and 45th-overall picks in the 2026 NHL Draft and defenseman Louis Crevier to the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Bowen Byram. The second was Byram's extension, which made him the highest-paid defender in the NHL.

While it's fair to argue that Chicago's salary situation - and the cost to acquire Byram - made the contract inevitable, it's a huge gamble on a defenseman that's only scored above 40 points once in his career.

Fortunately, that deal won't look so bad in the near future.

Two superstar defensemen up for big contract extensions

A summer from now, two of the NHL's top defensemen are due for big contract extensions: Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes.

Both will almost certainly ask for more money than Byram. Their respective teams - the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild - need to keep them around as long as they possibly can. Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin might be under more pressure than any other general manager in the NHL to keep his core intact.

While the Byram deal might look pretty bad now, over time, the rising cap, coupled with the paydays of star defenders, will soften the blow.

That said, the deal is among one of Kyle Davidson's worst blunders as a general manager. While it's true that Chicago has to reach the salary floor, they're still far away from a Connor Bedard extension and have a handful of players set for paydays after this offseason. Next year, Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore, Landon Slaggert, Wyatt Kaiser, Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel are all due for a big pay raise.

None of the players will command the high level of salary that Byram does, but this kind of contract crunch can make or break general managers. If Davidson isn't careful, those contracts could be death by a thousand cuts for the Blackhawks.

If Byram can justify this hefty contract with star-level play, the deal won't look so bad. But a lot of things need to go right in order for that to be possible.

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