Connor Bedard Improved All Aspects of His Game This Season

Connor Bedard finally took the big step that Chicago Blackhawks fans had been hoping to see during the 2025-26 season. Now that the season has concluded, I wanted to dig deeper, not just into basic stats like goals and assists, but also into the NHL Edge data.

NHL Edge is a great tool to go in further depth on players’ performances, and I’m going to use the comparison tool to compare his shot power, skating speed, where his shots and goals are coming from, as well as how head coach Jeff Blashill deployed him. I’m comparing his latest season to his 2024-25 season.

Basic Statistics

To begin, I want to qualify basic statistics as goals, assists and faceoff percentage (FO%). When it comes to these statistics, his growth was exponential.

In the 2024-25 season, he played all 82 games, posting 23 goals and 44 assists for a total of 67 points. In this season, where he played just 69 games, he set a career high in both goals and assists. He reached the 30-goal mark and posted 45 assists on top of it for 75 points in those 69 games.

Something that I was keeping an eye on for Bedard heading into this past season was how he did in the faceoff dot. With him being drafted as a center, it started to look to me like he probably wasn’t a full-time NHL centerman, with him posting a 38.9 FO% in his rookie year and a 38.3 FO% in the 2024-25 season.

While he is still below the league average, he had a huge jump this past season, posting a 47.1 FO%, and that was in a career high of faceoffs taken at 669. That number is up by 137 from the 2024-25 season and 13 from his rookie year.

He still needs to improve a little bit more at the dot, as well as in his defensive game, if he wants to be a full-time center for the rest of his career, but it’s a step in the right direction.

NHL Edge Shooting Statistics

One of the biggest stories surrounding Bedard before the beginning of the 2025-26 season was his skipping the IIHF World Championship to work on his game and get a little bit stronger.

It not only paid off in points, but it was also shown in his pure shot speed statistics. This season, he recorded the hardest shot in his career on Feb. 28, 2026, in a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche during the third period. That shot came in at 90.74 miles per hour (mph).

He shot far more this season than last, so the pure numbers of how many shots he had in the 80-90 mph range and 70-80 mph range don’t mean much. However, his average shot speed went up over a mph from 59.13 to 60.74.

Something else that was interesting to me about Bedard’s shooting statistics is where his shots came from last season. Although he shot the puck 31 more times this season, he recorded just one more long-range shot and four more mid-range. Where the big change happened was his being able to get into high-danger positions so much more often.

He was able to take 18 more shots in high-danger positions, where he was shooting at 24.1 percent. He scored 13 of his 30 goals in those areas. If he continues to get into those areas as often as he did, but this time over 82 games, I can’t wait to see what his totals will look like at the end of the 2026-27 season.

Another thing that was encouraging was this huge uptick in scoring and high-danger chances wasn’t because of deployment. Blashill actually had Bedard starting in each zone right around the league average rates.

NHL Edge Skating Statistics

Not only did the offseason help Bedard in the shooting department, but his skating took a jump, too, which is huge. In a division with teams like the Avalanche, Utah Mammoth, Minnesota Wild, and the Dallas Stars, you need to be able to play at the quickest pace possible.

The Blackhawks have guys with exceptional speed, like Bedard’s linemate at times this season, Frank Nazar, and Bedard isn’t necessarily a burner. His top speed topped out at 22.36 mph, which is just in the 58th percentile of the league. That being said, he did make some strides this season.

During the 2024-25 season, he didn’t have a single speed burst at 22-plus mph; however, that changed during the 2025-26 season, when he recorded 11 of them. He also recorded 114 more bursts between 20 and 22 mph.

Bedard obviously isn’t going to be able to push his top speed up significantly from 22.36 mph, but if he is able to continue to play at his top speed more consistently, that is huge as well.

Next season is going to be fun to see how much of a jump Bedard can take and the numbers he puts up during, hopefully, a fully healthy season.