The Chicago Blackhawks have spent the offseason talking like a team ready to move up the NHL ladder. That expectation comes from inside the room, where players came out of the regular season saying it was time to take the next step and start chasing a playoff spot.
For a club that has finished in the bottom three of the league for four straight seasons, that’s the right kind of noise. But there’s a catch: a lot of those same players are being asked to make major leaps at the same time.
That makes the opening month of the 2026-27 season feel especially heavy. The Blackhawks can’t lock up a playoff berth in October, but they can absolutely bury themselves if the start goes sideways. And the first stretch is now even more unforgiving after it was announced on July 8 that Connor Bedard would need four months to recover from shoulder surgery.
The original team timeline points to Nov. 8, which would keep Bedard out for the first 18 games. Those games are split evenly between nine at home and nine on the road, and 12 of them come against teams that reached the playoffs last season. Two of those matchups are against the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
The schedule does Chicago no favors right out of the gate. The season opens with a three-game road trip through Vegas, Utah, and Buffalo.
The Blackhawks went 1-1-1 against the Golden Knights last season, and that opener also comes with a wrinkle: it will be the first game for Vegas under new head coach Ryan Craig. Chicago swept the four-game series against the Mammoth last year, while Buffalo was a rough matchup, outscoring the Blackhawks 14-4 in a two-game sweep.
The home opener brings St. Louis to the United Center.
The Blackhawks split four games with the Blues last season, but they also had their best offensive output against them, scoring 20 goals in the series. From there, Chicago heads to the New York Islanders, a team it took three of four points from last season.
Then comes the first of two seven-game homestands, and this one is loaded. Five of the seven visitors were playoff teams a year ago.
Carolina is first, and the Blackhawks will see the Hurricanes again in Raleigh on Nov. 7.
Chicago beat the defending champs in their building last season.
The rest of that homestand is a grind: Pittsburgh, Winnipeg, Dallas, Montreal, Florida, and Los Angeles. Against those six teams last season, the Blackhawks went 4-9-3 and were outscored 61-35.
Dallas was the one bright spot, with Chicago going 2-0-1 in the three-game series. Florida and Winnipeg both enter the season trying to rebound from down years, but this stretch still has the feel of a measuring stick.
After that, the Blackhawks hit the road for Original 6 stops in Detroit and Boston. They beat the Red Wings 5-1 in Detroit last season and lost 4-3 in overtime at Boston.
Their final home game in this Bedard-less stretch comes Nov. 2 against Colorado, and that’s a steep ask: Chicago lost all three games to the Avalanche last season, getting outscored 8-2. Colorado won the Presidents’ Trophy last season.
There’s also a possible final three-game road trip without Bedard that looks brutal on paper: Tampa Bay, Florida, and Carolina. The Blackhawks did beat Tampa 3-2 last season, and Bedard did not record a point in that game, with Ryan Donato scoring twice.
The bigger picture is not encouraging. Against these 15 opponents last season, Chicago went 11-20-7 and was outscored 141-93.
That won’t automatically repeat, and the Blackhawks should be better than they were a year ago. But the absence of Bedard makes this opening stretch even harder to manage.
So the burden shifts quickly. Frank Nazar is in the first season of his big contract and has to justify it from opening night.
Roman Kantserov and Anton Frondell were already under pressure as rookies, and that pressure only grows if Chicago wants to stay afloat. Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore, and Nick Lardis need to be more steady.
Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, and Donato have to do their part early. Bowen Byram also has to help create offense on the power play.
That’s a long list, but it’s the price of trying to climb out of the league’s basement. The one thing Chicago does have is time to prepare.
Unlike last season, when the team had to improvise after Bedard was injured, this time it gets a full training camp and preseason to figure out how to function without him. Line combinations, roles, and structure can all be sorted before the games start counting.
If the Blackhawks can tread water and play around .500 hockey until Bedard returns, they’ll give themselves a real chance. If they stumble early, the season could be over before their best player even gets back on the ice.
In Other News...
What Really Helped Convince Connor Bedard The Blackhawks Are Serious
Connor Bedards long-term future in Chicago came into sharper focus after the Blackhawks made a move that signaled they are trying to build something more than just a promising young core. The addition of Bowen Byram gave the organization another proven piece to pair with its rising talent, and it did not go unnoticed by the franchise center as contract talks moved toward an extension.
What stood out most was how the deal seemed to reinforce the message the Blackhawks have been trying to send: this is not a rebuild stuck in neutral. Bedard has been looking for signs that the team is serious about winning sooner rather than later, and the Byram trade appears to have helped answer at least part of that question, even if the full story behind the extension is still unfolding. [Read more 🡒]
Connor Bedard Just Added Fuel To Patrick Kane Buzz
Connor Bedards new long-term deal with the Blackhawks locked in the face of the franchise, but it also gave Chicago another reminder of how much star power still matters around this rebuild. With Patrick Kane still on the market, Bedard made it clear he would welcome the chance to share the ice with the former Blackhawks icon again, adding a little more intrigue to a name that never really leaves the conversation in Chicago.
For a team trying to turn promise into something bigger, the idea of Kane coming back carries obvious appeal beyond nostalgia. Bedards comments only sharpened that buzz, since a reunion would give the Blackhawks a proven veteran presence and one of the leagues most recognizable returning storylines, even as the final landing spot for Kane remains unresolved. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Quietly Made A Move That May Have Helped Bedard Commit
The Blackhawks summer work has not been only about roster fit and cap planning. Their acquisition of Bowen Byram also appears to have carried a quieter benefit, one tied to Connor Bedard and the long-standing connection between the two. In a league where star players notice everything around them, Chicagos move seems to have resonated beyond the blue line and into the bigger picture of keeping its franchise centerpiece comfortable with the direction of the team.
Byrams arrival may have mattered in a way that does not show up in the box score, giving the Blackhawks another layer of value from a deal that was already about improving the lineup. For a rebuilding club trying to convince Bedard that the next steps are worth taking together, those kinds of details can matter just as much as the on-ice ones, and this is one of the reasons the move drew attention inside the organization. [Read more 🡒]