Connor Bedard’s first few seasons in Chicago came with the kind of pressure that can crush a young player. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, and he landed with a Blackhawks team that was still very much in the middle of a rebuild. When things went sideways, the frustration in the building was never hard to read.
That dynamic is starting to shift.
Bedard enters his fourth season with a new five-year contract, signed on July 18, and the expectations around him are changing along with the roster. The burden is no longer just about surviving the early years and shouldering everything on his own. Now it’s about doing more with a team that should be better equipped to win.
In 2023-24, Chicago was just beginning its rebuild, and Bedard was 18 years old. The roster around him simply wasn’t ready to compete.
Philipp Kurashev was beside him on a top line that drew plenty of attention, and Kurashev had the best season of his career with 54 points, including 18 goals and 36 assists. But by Bedard’s second season, when he was back as the reigning Calder Trophy winner, there still wasn’t anyone on the roster who could match his speed or his level of play.
That left Bedard carrying a heavy load. Line combinations changed constantly, and he was asked to figure things out largely on his own.
That helped his development in one sense, but it also put a massive amount of pressure on a teenager. When the Blackhawks struggled, Bedard’s game became the easiest place to focus blame.
He brought effort every night, but with little help around him, plenty of people treated anything short of immediate stardom like a letdown.
The situation is different now because Chicago’s roster is supposed to keep improving. More prospects are coming.
Veterans are being added. Young players are gaining experience.
As that happens, the conversation around Bedard will naturally evolve, because it becomes a lot harder to pin every team failure on one player when the group around him is better.
Management will also be paying close attention to which prospects fit best with Bedard. The Blackhawks have a strong pipeline, and general manager Kyle Davidson deserves credit for building that depth. He has shown he can draft well and turn promising young talent into NHL regulars.
The bigger picture is clear: Chicago wants to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20, and Bedard is the player who has to drive that push. Since the NHL Draft began in 1963, only 19 of 64 first overall picks have gone on to win the Stanley Cup at least once in their careers.
Nineteen. That’s the standard he’s up against, and it’s the next stage of his development.
There’s a real difference between being a talented young player and being the one who can tilt a game in his team’s favor. If the Blackhawks are going to make a run, it won’t be enough for their young players to simply look promising. It will come down to whether Bedard can be the guy who carries them there.
He’s already an NHL star. The question now is whether he can be the star on a team expected to win more. That’s a different kind of pressure, and it may end up revealing more about his ceiling than the early years ever could.
Chicago does not need him to rescue the franchise. The organization has spent years building toward a roster that can support him. What it does need is for him to become the centerpiece of everything they are trying to build.
Bedard was not drafted first overall so the Blackhawks could spend years talking about what he might become. He was drafted to be the player who changes everything. This season should go a long way toward showing whether he can.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Fans Got Another Reminder Of Bedard's Place In The NHL
The Blackhawks have a few different threads running as they head toward camp, starting with the return of their prospect showcase at the practice facility. The 2026 event will feature a 22-player roster and a schedule built to give the organization another early look at its next wave of talent, while the front office also worked to keep a young piece of the blue line in place with a new deal for Kevin Korchinski.
Amid all of that future-facing planning, Connor Bedard got another reminder of how he is viewed around the league. NHL Network placed him No. 44 on its current top-50 players list, a ranking that underscores both his value to Chicago and the expectations that come with being the face of the rebuild. For a team still shaping its next core, that kind of recognition is a marker of progress, even if the bigger leap is still ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Are Betting On Cole Smith To Fix A Quiet Weak Spot
The Blackhawks spent part of the offseason looking for a sturdier floor in their bottom six, and Cole Smith looks built for that kind of job. After stops with the Predators and Golden Knights, the veteran forward brings the sort of role-player profile Chicago has been targeting: physical play, reliable penalty killing and the experience that comes from surviving long enough to earn trust in harder minutes.
Smith is not arriving to drive offense, and that is the point. Chicago pursued him for a specific type of value, hoping his habits can help steady areas that were quieter than they needed to be and give the lineup more bite when games tighten up. The fit is less about flash than function, which is exactly why the Blackhawks are betting on it. [Read more 🡒]
Bowen Byrams Price Tag Suddenly Looks Different For The Blackhawks
When the Blackhawks committed to Bowen Byram as their top defenseman, the number attached to the deal already looked like a major bet on his upside and importance to the lineup. Chicago signed him to a six-year contract, and the organization is clearly banking on him growing into a cornerstone as the roster continues to take shape.
The market around that kind of defenseman has only made the discussion more interesting. Byrams place on the list of NHL salaries now sits in a different light as other elite blue-liners keep pushing the ceiling higher, which gives Chicago a useful point of comparison as it measures what it has invested in a player it expects to anchor the back end for years. [Read more 🡒]