Connor Bedard isn’t completely pleased with his rookie season.
Michael Reaves/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Connor Bedard’s standards are high.
So when the star center looks back on his first season with the Blackhawks, he’s not entirely pleased with how it went, even though he led all rookies in scoring by a long shot and will likely take home the Calder Trophy.
“Personally, I think I was OK a lot, but maybe not as good as I hoped,” Bedard said Thursday before the Hawks’ season-ending loss to the Kings.
“But that’s part of it. [I’m] just learning. I feel like I improved throughout the year, which is big. But for this summer, I’ve got a lot of areas to improve. That’s a positive — to be able to go in knowing you feel you can get better.”
Bedard, who missed several weeks this past winter with a fractured jaw, finished the season with 61 points (22 goals and 39 assists) in 68 games. His scoring tailed off somewhat this spring — he tallied just one goal in his last 14 games — but his playmaking kept him close to an average of one point per game.
It was the best season by a Hawks rookie since Artemi Panarin in 2015-16, when Panarin was six years older than Bedard is now. It was the best season by a Hawks teenager since Patrick Kane in 2007-08 and the fourth-best of all time, behind only Eddie Olczyk, Denis Savard and Kane.
Bedard said he has improved in terms of his comfort level holding on to pucks and making plays. Over the last seven months, he has refined his understanding of what does and doesn’t work at this level — and what a player with his talent and vision can and can’t pull off.
“The more you play, the more you’re used to playing against the top players in the world in the best league in the world,” he said. “That has helped me a lot.”
He mentioned his defensive performance and his faceoff percentage (39.2%) as areas where he hasn’t met personal expectations.
It’s exhilarating to imagine the leap a player with Bedard’s baseline could make between his 18-year-old and 19-year-old seasons. He’s optimistic he can take the next step, evolving from not just the best player on a bad team and the best rookie in the NHL into a true superstar.
“I hope I’m better, of course,” he said. “I’ll do everything I can throughout the summer to try to make that happen. But actions speak a lot louder than words.”
Classic date
Next season’s Winter Classic between the Hawks and Blues at Wrigley Field will be held on New Year’s Eve at 4 p.m., the NHL announced Wednesday. That means the game will begin around dusk and largely be played at night.
The event has historically been held on New Year’s Day. It will still officially be called the “2025 Winter Classic,” even with the NHL and TNT deciding to move it a day earlier to avoid conflicts with College Football Playoff games.
What’s next?
Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson will conduct exit interviews with every player Saturday. After that, the draft lottery will take place May 6 or 7.
The Hawks will then fly under the radar until the scouting combine June 2-8 in Buffalo, New York, as they prepare for the NHL draft June 28-29 in Las Vegas. That kicks off their busiest stretch of the offseason — the draft, followed by the start of free agency July 1 and their prospect-development camp in Chicago in early July.