Bowen Byram’s Continued Mysterious Absence Explained
His agent, Darren Ferris, reached out to me today. He wanted to say that the reason Byram has not come back yet is due to his desire to have Byram see a certain specialist... and until that gets done, that's the reason Byram has not returned.
Byram's last appearance was October 13th, when he played the full game (24:13 ice time) in the Hawks' 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He registered an assist and a +1 plus/minus as well as two hits. There was no indication that he was injured.
The chronology of Byram's injury absence
Two days later, however, head coach Jeff Blashill told the media that the 25-year-old D-man was out day-to-day with the ever-vague "upper-body injury."
Byram dealt with concussion-related issues earlier in his career with the Colorado Avalanche, but Blashill denied that was the issue here.
The 6'1" defenseman had returned to practice a couple of weeks ago with the team, skating in a non-contact jersey, but that stopped about a week ago.
Byram was obtained by Chicago in a big offseason sign-and-trade with the Buffalo Sabres, and signed to a massive 6-year, $75 million contract with a $12.5 million AAV to be the team's blueline leader.
In his six games with the Blackhawks, he has one assist, nine blocked shots and a minus-7 rating, while logging an average of 24:42 time on ice per night.
The Hawks are now on a six-game losing streak, including a 9-2 embarrassment at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.