CHICAGO -- Connor Bedard is much more at ease at Chicago Blackhawks training camp this time, coming off an offseason of calm he didn’t get last year when he was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
“I didn’t have an interview for a couple of months, which was unbelievable,” the 19-year-old center said to laughs on Friday, the second day of camp. “I feel a lot more ready to come [here]. The excitement was there last year, but I think I just feel more relaxed.”
Amid all the frenzy surrounding Bedard, he had an outstanding rookie season, with 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists) in 68 games. He averaged 19:47 of ice time per game, most among Blackhawks forwards and fourth behind defensemen Seth Jones (25:29), Alex Vlasic (21:29) and Connor Murphy (19:50).
Bedard won the Calder Trophy in June as NHL rookie of the year. Still, that calmer feeling should help him build off last season.
“To me, it seems that maybe there’s a bit of a weight off his shoulders, that he’s had that rookie year under his belt and it was a really good rookie year for him,” forward Taylor Hall said. “He produced offensively exceptionally well.
“I know I felt that after my first year. It was like, ‘OK, I can take a breath and I know what it’s like. I know what training camp is going to be like.’ Just even things like, ‘I know what the strength coach is like, I know how to conduct myself off the ice, I know where I’m living and I know the city.’ At least what I’m seeing is a sense of comfortability, knowing that it’s really a lot of where our team goes is going to be him, but I think he’s excited for it.”
As individually rewarding as last season was for Bedard, overall it was unsatisfying with the Blackhawks (23-53-6) finishing eighth in the Central Division.
“It was frustrating,” he told NHL.com at the NHL North American Player Media Tour in Las Vegas this month. “We lost a lot of hockey games last year and that weighs on you, and for me it was really difficult. Even going into the summer, it was a big motivator for sure.”
So Bedard went home to North Vancouver, British Columbia, and “worked on speed and everything.”
“The biggest thing for me is our skating group in Vancouver in the offseason is so competitive,” he said at the Player Media Tour. “We’re always doing small games or 3-on-3 or whatever. We’re trying to use our brains a lot, the way we skate, the way we train, make things as game-like as you can, which I think benefits you going into camp and obviously into games.”
Bedard put a lot of pressure on himself last season. At times he was double-shifting, taking longer shifts, trying to make the big play in a critical situation. It didn’t help that the Blackhawks sustained a lot of injuries last season -- Bedard himself was out nearly six weeks with a fractured jaw sustained against the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 5 -- and he probably felt the need to do more.
Now the Blackhawks have more experience after series of veteran additions at the start of free agency July 1, when they signed forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Pat Maroon and Craig Smith, defensemen TJ Brodie and Alec Martinez, and goalie Laurent Brossoit. They’ll also have forward Taylor Hall back after he was limited to 10 games last season because of knee surgery in November. It all should help take the pressure off Bedard.
“Look around the room. There are a lot of other guys that can take the burden off him, right?” captain Nick Foligno said. “He doesn’t always have to be the guy who makes the game-deciding play. We brought in Teuvo Teravainen, an excellent player, Tyler Bertuzzi. Taylor Hall. There are a lot of good players in this room that can take some of the pressures of having to be the best.
“He’s already going to want to be the best, but not having to make a difference each and every time on the ice, I think it’ll allow his game to come to him more. That’s exciting, where he doesn’t have to play so many crazy minutes and can just be protected a little bit in certain areas and allow his skills and his abilities to come out, because he’s put in really good spots on the ice. I’m excited to see what he can do.”
Bedard is a little older, a little wiser and a lot more familiar with all things NHL. He’s ready to apply it all with hopes of have an even better season.
“It’s just good to have the year under my belt,” he said Friday. “I think when you’re a rookie, everything seems like a bigger deal to the outside people. I’m just excited to get in another year and play hockey.”
NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika contributed to this report
