{"id":756439,"date":"2026-06-24T04:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756439\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T04:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:02:08","slug":"blackhawks-trade-no-4-pick-in-nhl-draft-to-sabres-for-byram-greenway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756439\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks trade No. 4 pick in NHL Draft to Sabres for Byram, Greenway"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the deal, Buffalo also acquired third-year defenseman Louis Crevier<\/a>, who had a career-best 25 points in his first full NHL season, and a second-round draft pick, 46th overall. Chicago also acquired hard-hitting forward Jordan Greenway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Byram is the key player in the trade.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old had a career-high 42 points and matched a career high with 11 goals in 82 games in spending much of the season playing alongside captain Rasmus Dahlin as Buffalo\u2019s top defensive pairing. He was part of a deep and talented blue line that contributed to the Sabres winning their first Atlantic Division title and snapping\u00a0an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought.<\/p>\n

With the fourth pick, the Sabres are positioned to land a top prospect\u00a0in a draft class\u00a0that\u2019s loaded with highly regarded defenseman. Among the defensive candidates expected to be available at No. 4 are Carson Carels (WHL Prince George), North Dakota\u2019s Keaton Verhoeff and Latvia\u2019s Alberts Smits.<\/p>\n

Buffalo hosts the two-day draft that opens with Round 1 on Friday night (7 p.m. ET on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+).<\/p>\n

In Chicago, Byram adds offense to a team that finished eighth in the Central Division standings for a fourth straight season and hasn\u2019t made the playoffs in six years. The Blackhawks have struggled to improve despite picking seventh or better in each of the past four drafts \u2014 a stretch that included them selecting Connor Bedard first overall in 2023.<\/p>\n

Chicago has a group of promising young defensemen, including Artyom Levshunov \u2014 the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft \u2014 and Kevin Korchinski \u2014 the No. 7 pick in 2022. But the Blackhawks needed another veteran leader on the blue line after trading\u00a0Connor Murphy\u00a0to Edmonton on March 2.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Greenway is a 10-year NHL veteran, who spent three-plus seasons in Buffalo. He played a valuable checking line role, but has been slowed by injuries, limited to 74 games over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Byram spent his first three-plus seasons with Colorado, where he won the Stanley Cup in 2022 before being traded to Buffalo two years later.<\/p>\n

Former Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams signed Byram\u00a0to a two-year, $12.5 million contract last summer\u00a0in a deal reached before the defenseman\u2019s arbitration hearing.<\/p>\n

In addressing reporters after Buffalo was\u00a0eliminated by Montreal\u00a0in the second round of the playoffs last month, new Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen said he was placing a priority on signing Byram to a long-term contract this offseason.<\/p>\n

At 6-foot-8 and 228 pounds, Crevier brings size and a hard shot to the Sabres a mere five days after they traded 6-foot-5 defenseman Michael Kesselring to San Jose. The teams swapped first-round selections with Buffalo moving up seven spots in the order by landing the Sharks pick at No. 20.<\/p>\n

The Sabres now have six picks in this year’s draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the deal, Buffalo also acquired third-year defenseman Louis Crevier, who had a career-best 25 points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-756439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}