Dustin Byfuglien (6-foot-5, 260 pounds) is a hard guy to miss on the ice because his combination of size, physicality and skill. But when the Chicago Blackhawks ended their 49-year championship drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, opponents kept losing track of him at inopportune times.
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Byfuglien, a Minneapolis native, was selected by Chicago in the eighth round (No. 245) of the 2003 NHL Draft. After two seasons bouncing between the Blackhawks and the minor leagues, he earned another call-up on Nov. 3, 2007, scored a goal on his first shift and never saw the minors again.
The Blackhawks moved Byfuglien from defenseman to forward and were rewarded when he scored 11 goals in 22 games in the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He had a hat trick against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals, scored three game-winning goals in a four-game sweep of the San Jose Sharks in the conference final and had three goals in the last two games of the Stanley Cup Final to help the Blackhawks defeat the Philadelphia Flyers for their first championship since 1961.
Playing Byfuglien on a line with two first-round draft picks, center Jonathan Toews (2006) and right wing Patrick Kane (2007), turned out to be one of the best coaching moves of the postseason. "[Byfuglien's] had a remarkable run," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He's a hard guy to move."
Byfuglien became the first black player born in the United States to win the Stanley Cup, but was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers on June 24, 2010. The Thrashers, who moved and became the Winnipeg Jets in 2011, made Byfuglien a defenseman again, and he's averaged 51 points in seven full seasons since the trade.
