It’s been a difficult 2023-24 campaign for the Chicago Blackhawks, but the team and its fans received some good news on Feb. 6 when the NHL announced they and the St. Louis Blues would face off next season in the 2025 NHL Winter Classic at the historic Wrigley Field, home to Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs.
The announcement caused some in the hockey world to roll their eyes as the Blackhawks, who aren’t anywhere close to being a team that competes for a Stanley Cup championship, would be awarded the privilege of playing in another outdoor game. But the franchise hasn’t played in one since 2019 when they faced off at Notre Dame Stadium against the Boston Bruins, meaning they’re due for one.
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Oh, also, I forgot to mention: the Blackhawks also have a player who will likely be hockey’s biggest superstar in a few years, and perhaps one of the biggest names in all of professional sports by the end of the decade. His name is Connor Bedard.
Connor Bedard is Must-See Television
I don’t need to remind you of how talented Bedard, taken No. 1 overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, really is. He’s the best prospect the game has seen since Connor McDavid, and before that, Sidney Crosby.
Before he broke his jaw on Jan. 5, Bedard was having one of the best rookie seasons in modern NHL history, recording 15 goals and 18 assists in 39 games. Even while missing 13 of the Blackhawks’ 52 games (as of Feb. 13), he still leads the team in points, six points ahead of second-place Philipp Kurashev. He’s also one goal behind Jason Dickinson for the team lead in goals.
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Did I mention he’s 18? An 18-year-old playing first-line minutes against the best players in the world in the best league in the world, and he was scoring at a near point-per-game pace. So why wouldn’t the NHL put its current version of “The Next One” in as many of its biggest events as possible?
Look at the most recent All-Star Weekend, where an injured Bedard made an appearance in the skills competition.
All he did was show up! It was like Jay-Z charging over $1 million for an appearance fee, but everyone’s satisfied with just seeing his face. In a modern sports world where individuals and brands can be just as valuable as the teams themselves, a future superstar like Bedard puts eyeballs on television and butts in seats.
Through the 2010s, the NHL greatly benefited from a market like Chicago winning championships with one of the best and most popular Americans in Patrick Kane. His marketability and their on-ice success turned the Blackhawks into a money train for the league. They have that again with Bedard, only this time, it can be even bigger.
In preparation for this article, I spoke with a former colleague who currently works with the NHL through one of its many partners. I asked them about the dialogues they had with the league about marketing and branding. I didn’t expect them to be so blunt.
Note: they spoke on condition of anonymity since they are not permitted to speak on record about conversations they’ve had with the league.
Blackhawks Outdoor Games Will Become a Tradition
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays in 10 outdoor games by the end of his career,” they said in reference to Bedard.
Ten? I pushed back and said that would be repetitive, that even the most ardent hockey enthusiasts would grow tired of the saturation of seeing Bedard play outdoors, his face and slick grin plastered on every sign and pop up in every commercial.
“The NBA doesn’t care if you get tired of LeBron (James) or Steph Curry,” they responded. “Formula 1 puts Lewis Hamilton’s face on everything. Shohei Ohtani was already on Sportscenter every night, and now that he’s with the Los Angeles Dodgers, it’ll be multiplied by a thousand.
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“There used to be a case for having too much of something, but the other pro leagues in Europe and North America hit you over the head with their superstars, and it only makes them more popular. Hockey has always been behind, but it feels like they’re learning to adapt,” they continued.
I wrote about Bedard and the team’s marketability last October, how the NHL had to accelerate – not slow down – the amount of attention it gives to its most recent No. 1 overall pick. In it, I wrote:
Sports are impervious to saturation because something new happens each and every day. It’s the greatest reality TV show ever made. If that’s really true, then all eyes should be on Bedard.
NHL Needs to Get on & Accelerate the Connor Bedard Hype Train, Oct. 20, 2023
I stand by that, and I think anyone who has seen the success Bedard brought the Blackhawks and the league before his injury can see why. With the NHL’s U.S. rights belonging to ESPN and the Canadian deal with Rogers set the expire after 2025-26, the league is ready to push itself out of the cellar of sports notoriety and take its place among the biggest brands in the world.
With that in mind, for arguably its most popular annual event in the Winter Classic, it would be foolish not to have Bedard and the Blackhawks on full display for the world to see. He’s a treasure that’s worth sharing, not to camouflage in a sea of blandness.
