When Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson recently acquired defenseman Bowen Byram from the Buffalo Sabres with a hefty trade package, Davidson knew it was the first of two large prices he would have to pay for his future No. 1 defenseman.There was what the Sabres wanted for Byram, and there was what Byram sought in a new contract. He was entering the final year of his contract before he could become an unrestricted free agent, and the trade made sense to the Blackhawks only if they could retain the 25-year-old Byram for many more seasons beyond the 2026-27 one.On Wednesday, the first day Byram was eligible to sign an extension, the Blackhawks agreed to extend Byram for six more years with an average annual value of $12.5 million, according to a league source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address negotiations that aren’t public. For the time being, the contract makes Byram the highest-paid defenseman in the league, surpassing Erik Karlsson’s $11.5 million annual cap hit.When he acquired Byram, Davidson explained it would probably cost a substantial price to re-sign him.“It’s definitely a different dynamic than you would experience if there’s a player in your midst, and Bowen’s age, his expiration status being a UFA next summer at 26, is incredibly rare, incredibly valuable to a player, especially in this burgeoning upper limit salary cap market,” Davidson said June 24. “We can’t be ignorant to that. It’s something that we’ll have to be respectful of and also put our money where our mouth is, literally and figuratively, because we believe in this guy.