Blackhawks get bad Connor Bedard news that will impact first part of season

The timeline with this latest injury will keep him out of the lineup through all of training camp and the preseason as well as the first month of the regular season at a minimum.

While Bedard has not yet become the franchise-changing superstar he was projected to be in his draft year, he has still been one of the few bright spots for an otherwise-bad Blackhawks team that has been mired in a perpetual rebuild with no end in sight. 

He recorded 75 points (30 goals, 45 assists) in 69 games this past season.

The Blackhawks have been one of the NHL's worst teams even with his arrival and have just one playoff appearance since the 2015-16 season. Even that playoff appearance comes with something of an asterisk as it was during the expanded bubble playoffs in 2020 when 24 teams made the playoffs. In a normal year, Chicago would have been far removed from actual playoff contention.

Progress this offseason from a team-building concept remains slow, with their biggest move being the acquisition of defenseman Bowen Byram from the Buffalo Sabres. Byram is a good player and an upgrade to a defense that badly needs a player like him, but they likely overpaid in terms of assets (the No. 4 and 45 overall picks in the 2026 NHL Draft, plus a prospect) and salary by making him one of the NHL's highest-paid defenseman at $12.5 million per season. He is good, but he is not that good.

Beyond that, it has been quiet in Chicago.

Bedard also remains unsigned as a restricted free agent and is set to receive a massive contract extension at some point this summer. 

Management seems content to let all of their prospects and farm system develop at the NHL level, with no real backup plan in place in the event some of them struggle or fail to develop. It is a given that some, if not most of them, will struggle or fail to develop, just based on the success rate of NHL prospects leaguewide. 

Now they are going to be without their best player for at least the first month. It may take him a while to get back up to 100% and full speed even when he does return. You might not be able to make the playoffs in October, but you can certainly miss them if you put yourself into a deep enough hole in the standings. The Blackhawks are now facing that possibility.