Once upon a time, the Blackhawks were able to draft and develop defensemen with the best of them to build a foundation that led to Stanley Cups. Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Niklas Hjalmarsson were all part of Chicago’s top-four for all three Cups and Dustin Byfuglien was a fourth that was a major reason they won the first.
Hjalmarsson, a fourth-round pick in 2005, played 623 games in Chicago. Since then, the Blackhawks haven’t drafted a defenseman who’s played a full regular season’s worth of games (82) with the team. Adam Boqvist is close at 76. The No.