What the Blackhawks Gain From Connor Bedard’s Return

Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson has preached building his roster like the Carolina Hurricanes and even the Florida Panthers, aspiring to have their level and play of hockey, and who doesn’t? Those two teams have won the Stanley Cup the past three years. 

The Blackhawks, on Oct. 10, just so happened to find out that it’s easier said than done, as they lost 5-1 to the Hurricanes in a game that wasn’t necessarily close. The silver lining in the game was that they were without Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, the latter of whom was suspended for two games for his hit on New York Islanders captain Bo Horvat. 

Following the loss, good news came out of Chicago that Bedard has been activated and will make his 2026-27 debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 13. It’s a much-needed spark and will hopefully help balance a dreadful 1-5-0 start. 

Bedard Is Back 

Over the offseason, Bedard took a spill while training in Vancouver. It turned into a freak accident, where he skated off the ice right after it happened in distress, holding his left shoulder. News came out later that he required surgery and that he’d miss the opening to the regular season. It was a tough pill to swallow after such an eventful and mostly-exciting offseason for the Blackhawks.

Bedard is coming off a career-high 75-point season in 69 games played. Bedard, in 2025-26, injured his right shoulder off of a faceoff in a game in December against the St. Louis Blues and missed 12 games because of it. He didn’t need to have surgery on the shoulder, so he was only out for a month. 

How much Bedard means to this team really showed in his absence. All of the structure went missing without the superstar first-line centre and Blackhawks crashed and burned hard without him. He will be playing his first game after signing his $75 million contract, and will have to start producing almost immediately to get this “let’s-finish-the-rebuild” train back on the rails. Bedard knows he needs to reroute the train, and he’s going to come back and do just that. In the 78 games left in the season, he’s likely to be a point-per-game player, or more, alongside Roman Kantserov and Patrick Kane. 

Can the Blackhawks Get Back on Track? 

There’s no other way around it: the Blackhawks have been awful in the first six games of the season. The only game they won was their home opener in a red-hot United Center when they played against the Blues, and even that’s looking like a fluke right now. The bad news is that their schedule doesn’t get any easier. They have a six-game homestand coming up, but it consists of the Penguins, Winnipeg Jets, Montreal Canadiens, Dallas Stars, and the Panthers. The good news? Bedard’s returning and will help the cause. 

In the first few games of the campaign, it looked like head coach Jeff Blashill didn’t establish any systems. On top of that, everyone was underwhelming. The defense couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone, was pinching when they should’ve backchecked, and it led to not having any offense whatsoever and getting outshot every game in wild proportions. Spencer Knight was on his own little lonely island in between the pipes, having to perform miracles to keep them in the game. 

Blashill brought out the lineup blender nearly every shift just like last season; he had guys like Bowen Byram and Kane playing on their offsides on defense and power play alike and it was a disaster. Luckily, it seems as if he’s moved them both around now, as Byram is back on the left and Kane is back in his natural habitat on the power play on the right wall. Bedard will assume his former position on the left wall; Bedard on the left and Kane on the right should be fun to watch. 

Unfortunately, all of this won’t mean anything if the systems, or lack thereof, are the same. There needs to be a style of hockey — a system — put in place, and lines need to be kept the same for more than one shift to build chemistry. If none of that changes, as much of a boost as Bedard is, it may not mean much. All eyes are going to turn to the coaching staff, and their seats are going to get warm; at the end of the day, Bedard, while he can help out a lot, is only one guy in an entire organization.

Making the playoffs is ambitious and most likely won’t happen, but being competitive every night — that’s a must for the Blackhawks going forward.