Chicago Blackhawks Insider: Do the Blackhawks Miss Dustin Byfuglien?

Remember the group of guys that helped lead the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Finals and a Stanley Cup win?

Some of those guys are still part of the roster, guys like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith. Some of the others have left the team, including John Madden, Antti Niemi and Dustin Byfuglien.

Of all of those players that have departed, Byfuglien is probably having the most success since leaving Chicago.

But do the Blackhawks really miss him that much? If he was still here, would the Blackhawks be in better shape than they are now? Would they be the same? Would they be worse?

If you have been keeping track of Byfuglien, you will see that he’s been one of the NHL’s best defensemen this season. He has participated in 47 games for the Thrashers this season and has 16 goals and 25 assists for a total of 41 points. He is ranked 31st in goals, 28th in assists and first in game-winning goals.

When comparing the Hawks' best defensemen, Duncan Keith, to Byfuglien, they both have played near the same number of games (Keith has one fewer than Byfuglien), but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. Byfuglien has more goals, more assists and looks to be a much better offensive weapon than Keith currently is.

Granted, they play on two different teams and in two different systems, but the strides Byfuglien has made this season cannot be ignored. Maybe Byfuglien has a better supporting cast than Keith has with his Blackhawks. Maybe the Thrashers tailored their system a little bit more to take advantage of the size and ability that he possesses.

Whatever they are doing, it’s working out very well for them.

Byfuglien had his struggles when he was with the Blackhawks. He wasn’t as powerful as perhaps he could have been, and he tended to “disappear” in some games. Perhaps his being traded to Atlanta was sort of a “wake-up” call that got him much more motivated and playing better than he did while he was in Chicago.

If the money was right, would it have been a good idea for the Blackhawks to have kept Byfuglien? There were many people that disagreed that keeping Byfuglien would have any benefit to the Blackhawks. After all, he was kind of a no-show in some games, sluggish and really only showed up in the playoffs, right?

But whatever he did to straighten himself up and play like he has so far this season cannot be ignored. If he just would have been able to do that in Chicago, the Blackhawks may have made a stronger effort to keep him despite the fact they couldn’t afford to keep him. Perhaps they could have done some salary cap juggling that would have allowed them to afford keeping Byfuglien as well as some of the players that they did end up keeping.

So back to the question at hand: Do the Blackhawks miss Byfuglien? Of course they do. Any team could use a guy like Byfuglien (at least the way he is now), and Chicago’s defense could have been even better had he played the way he is playing in Atlanta.

But did the Blackhawks know that he would play this way? No, so while they could have used Byfuglien this season, they had no idea that he would be as good as he has been in Atlanta.