Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard Back, Four Questionable On Friday

The Chicago Blackhawks will have their lineup star back from injury when they host the Washington Capitals on Friday night. Connor Bedard confirmed that he will return to the lineup after missing the last 12 games due to a shoulder injury to Ben Pose of the Chicago Sun-Times. Bedard skated on the top power-play unit at Friday morning’s practice.

Bedard was injured in the final second of Chicago’s December 12th loss to the St. Louis Blues. He was on a scoring tear before his injury, with five goals and 11 points in his last seven games. Those marks brought Bedard up to 19 goals and 44 points in 31 games on the season.  That ranked the Blackhawks youngster third in points and fourth in goals in the NHL.

Naturally, Chicago hit a skid once Bedard fell out of the lineup. Their average goals fell from 2.9 to 2.1 through their remaining eight games in December, leading to a 1-6-1 record to end 2025. Surprisingly, the young roster snapped out of that struggle in the New Year. Chicago is currently riding a four-game win-streak, capped off by a 7-3 win over the Blues on Wednesday. That win was spurred by young forwards Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis, Landon Slaggert, and Ryan Greene.

With that quartet now clicking down the lineup, Chicago will be in a perfect position to add their top scorer back to the lineup. Bedard spent most of his time next to Greene and Andre Burakovsky prior to his injury. That line outscored opponents 13-to-6 at even-strength – the most of only four Blackhawks lines with a positive goal-differential. The chances that Bedard returns to that line on Friday could be slim, though, as Greene has taken on the second-line center role with Frank Nazar also injured.

Chicago will need to spread their depth after forwards Nick Foligno and Ilya Mikheyev, goaltender Arvid Soderblom, and head coach Jeff Blashill all missed Friday’s morning skate. The team isn’t yet sure who of those four will be available for Friday night’s game per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio. The four seem to have fallen victim to a flu bug making its way through the Blackhawks locker room right now. The injury-ridden Blackhawks have two extra forwards – Sam Lafferty and Landon Slaggert – but had to call upon famous emergency backup goaltender Scott Foster to backup at practice. They would be eligible for an emergency recall should they need to fill an additional spot.

Should Blashill need to sit on the side, Chicago would likely ask Anders Sorensen to fill the head coach spot. Sorensen coahed the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs from 2022 to 2025, then earned a promotion to an interim head coach role partway through last season. He remains with Chicago as an assistant coach this year.