Chicago Blackhawks: 1 bad draft pick haunted them on Tuesday

The Chicago Blackhawks were just thoroughly beat by the Colorado Avalanche. They had a bad structure and there was no organization to their game at all. Patrick Kane and Seth Jones were terrible for most of the game and those are two players that need to be amazing. The Aves are really good which makes things hard on guys like that but they need to be better going forward.

Unfortunately, a bad decision by the Blackhawks a few years ago reared its ugly head. In the 2019 NHL Draft, the Hawks chose Kirby Dach with the third overall pick. He was really good in Tuesday’s game. He had many chances and was clearly one of Chicago’s best forwards. You can even make a claim that he was their best skater.

However, in choosing Dach, they passed on Bowen Byram. One pick later, the Avalanche used a pick acquired from the Ottawa Senators to land Byram. In this game, he was sensational. He only played in 19 games during the shortened 2020-21 season and collected just two assists but he has clearly taken another step.

He dominated the game in a lot of ways including offense. He scored his first career NHL goal and added an assist. If the Hawks had a defenseman like this in their system, they would be in a really nice spot. Getting the opportunity to draft a sure-fire potential number one defenseman like that in the draft doesn’t come around often and they punted on it.

The Chicago Blackhawks saw Bowen Byram have a big hand in beating them.

Bowen Byram is going to be a superstar. With another number one defenseman there in Cale Makar, there is an embarrassment of riches in Colorado. The Avalanche are going to take advantage of this Chicago Blackhawks mistake for a long time.

Don’t be surprised if they are very good this season and make a run towards the Stanley Cup. They were very shorthanded on Tuesday night and still managed to make the Hawks look bad and unorganized.

There is a way to make this bad draft choice work out. Kirby Dach isn’t a bad player by any stretch of the imagination. It would be much better to have a number young one defenseman in the system or on the NHL roster than Dach but he can still be a key player.

If he plays as he did on Tuesday all year long, he could be a 50-55 point guy this season. He could potentially have some big totals in his prime and it is up to the Hawks to get him there. He had incredible chances in this game vs Colorado and if he keeps it up, they will start to show results. Missing on Byram was a mistake but they can do their best to make up for it.

It was a tough loss where most players didn’t play well but it was just game 1 of 82. They will be back at it on Friday when they take on the New Jersey Devils. That is a team that will present a whole different set of challenges but nobody is as good as Colorado right now.