Second-year centre Connor Bedard has had a tough week with the Chicago Blackhawks. Bedard was given his second misconduct penalty in a row in the Blackhawks’ 6-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. (Bedard was given a penalty two nights before in Chicago’s 4-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.)
The Blackhawks as a team are bad this season. They enter Tuesday night’s matchup against the Seattle Kraken with a 20-38-9 record. Chicago’s 49 points are the second-worst in the league.
While the team surrounding Bedard isn’t good, the 19-year-old is regressing in his second season in the NHL. His face-off win percentage is at 37.2%, down from 38.9% last season. Through 67 games played this season, he has 17 goals and 52 total points. Bedard finished with 22 goals and 61 points through all 68 games he played in 2023-24.
Chicago Blackhawks fans want a Connor Bedard trade?
Following Bedard’s antics last week, enough Blackhawks fans emailed the Chicago Tribune‘s Phil Thompson to prompt the beat writer to respond and legitimize the idea of the team actually shopping Bedard after a disappointing beginning to his career.
Thompson argued that while Bedard isn’t playing like the talent Chicago thought they were receiving in 2023, they can’t make a trade because no one can replace Bedard–who is tied for the most points on the team with 52.
“For context, the last couple of Hawks games haven’t been pretty, though you could say that about a lot of games this season,” Thompson wrote. “Bedard finished the last two games with 10-minute misconduct penalties, and he has looked short of the phenom his talent promised to be.
“But let’s break this down.
1. Bedard is having a minor rough patch, nothing that warrants doing anything crazy like trading the franchise (though there are plenty of Vancouver Canucks fans who’d be more than happy to hear you out).
And who’s going to replace him?
Bedard is still the engine that drives the offense and draws the most attention from defenses, even if other players have been putting up the statistics lately. When the Hawks acquire more legitimate offensive threats, likely through the free agent market or trade, then it’ll be fair to scrutinize how he performs next to better talent.”
The Blackhawks need to try a few things before making a trade
CCS suggested potential trades for the Blackhawks for the No. 1 pick before they selected Bedard. Most fans thought the idea was silly, as the 5-foot-10, 185-pound centre was thought to be the second coming of the six-foot-two, 194-pound centre, Connor McDavid.
Now some fans have buyer’s remorse.
At this time, the Blackhawks have no reason to part with the budding sharpshooter. Though they should consider making him a winger before trying to trade him away.
The front office needs to give Bedard more support to ease the pressure on No. 98 before they fail him like another team in Chicago has done to quarterbacks in recent history.
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9 Comments
NO! We want more talent and better coaching.
Whatever he was before is not what he is in the NHL. Bedard is a Kane. He is the same player as Kane. He is not a Toews. Move him to wing and acquire a center. He does not need to be traded. He needs to be unleashed on the wing.
This might be the dumbest article I’ve read. Nobody with hockey knowledge had Bedard as the 2nd coming of McDavid, because they are 2 completely different players. Anyone that says Bedard is a disappointment needs to realize that he has zero talent around him. Kid can play and the best move might be moving him to the wing or getting someone that can actually play on his wing
Rival fans wished for a trade lol not gonna happen, he is 19 very young and impulsive and still learning! Why would they trade a franchise player who is only on his second year in the big league, just stop already!!!
The whole article seems entirely crazy.
why would you trade a number one overall pick less than 2 years into his career?
However, I have to admit, being from Vancouver I think it would be great to see him in the city.
got to be the dumbest thing ive ever heard. And ive heard tons of stupid things over my 50 yrs…..
Bedard isn’t the problem. He needs better talent around him and fewer fans that want to blame him for what I put on the team’s poor management. If he’s the only person on the Ice that the other teams care about then he’s not going to get any time and space.
Compare what this current management has done with what they did when Toews and Kane came into the team. A year after Kane was drafted the team had the following people on it before they won the cup the following year.: Havlat, Sharp, Veersteeg, Byfuglein, Bolland, Ladd, Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Khabibulin.
Quenneville was the coach four games into that season and brought them the cup the next year. Dale Tallon put most of that together and then ended up being replaced by none other than Stan Bowman who brought in Hossa, Brouwer, Madden, Hjalmarsson, Sopel and Kopecky.
In other words, they put a winning team together from top to bottom and the stars were surrounded by an all star supporting cast almost immediately.
Bedard isn’t the problem. If we need to trade anyone, it’s the coach and management. Bedard has needed a full team, and Blackhawks management failed to complete a team. Washed up Bertuzzi and Taraveinin are not enough. Hats off to Mrazek in net, though, made crazy saves all the time. We need good complete lines of defense and more than Bedard on the forward lines. We should have had more salary cap since we tanked for a decade since we last won in 2025. Where is all the player salary cap going????? Where are we getting these random filler jamokes? It’s as corrupted as any political party. Don’t knock Bedard for the management of the team.
Bowman did not bring in Hossa. That was actually one of the last deals that Dale Tallon did before being let go. He also brought in John Madden as well.