Connor Bedard ready to ‘attack’ offseason after two goals in Blackhawks’ season finale
OTTAWA — Connor Bedard had time to come to terms with the Blackhawks’ end-of-season fate.
He’s known for a while the Blackhawks weren’t making the playoffs. While he hopes for a different fate in the future, he hasn’t been wasting any time in planning to take advantage of the long offseason ahead.
“Everyone wants to be in the playoffs, but the one thing for us young guys is we have a five-month summer,” Bedard said before Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. “That sucks, but in a way you can take a lot of time to improve, kind of attack where you feel like your game can go to the next level.”
Bedard’s second NHL season came to a close Tuesday on a high note. After not recording a single multi-goal game in his first 81 games of the season, he scored twice and had a primary assist in the Blackhawks’ 4-3 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators.
Even with the strong finish, it wasn’t exactly the season Bedard envisioned for himself. Still, there were some areas of growth.
“Maybe his production fell off a bit (from earlier in the season), but he still did a lot of positive things in terms of defensively, his positioning,” Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sörensen said before the game. “Again, I don’t think it’s ever going to be perfect, but I thought he took some strides there. Faceoffs have gotten a lot better. And I think he’s one of those guys that talked about patience with the puck — seems like he’s hanging onto more pucks now and doing more things that way, and not forcing things as much. So I think overall the growth has been good for him.”
Bedard agreed with a lot of that.
“I think I’ve rounded out my game a bit more,” Bedard said. “Obviously you would like a step more with production, which hasn’t been there as much. There’s definitely positives for me to take out of and things I can grow. I feel like there’s a lot of room for growth for me, which is exciting in a sense. I think kind of rounding out my game has improved.”
As important as those areas are, Bedard will always be evaluated based on his production. It’s what created all the hype around him in the first place. The Blackhawks’ rebuild likely only works if Bedard becomes an elite offensive player.
It’s not as if Bedard’s production has been terrible. Relative to his age — he won’t turn 20 until July — he’s been ahead of most players. He now owns the record for most assists by a teenager in Blackhawks history and is just the 11th teenager in league history to have multiple 60-point seasons. It just isn’t where he expected it to be. He had 22 goals and 39 assists in 68 games as a rookie and followed that up with 23 goals and 44 assists in 82 games this season.
Bedard did have some thoughts on where he’d like to improve this offseason.
“I think the biggest thing is speed and explosiveness is No. 1 for me,” he said. “That’s always been my big thing. Just kind of learn about my body a bit and how to keep consistency throughout the year and stuff like that. Just try to learn as much as I can. Hopefully it’s a successful offseason.”
It’s not surprising that Bedard is looking to add more speed. Based on the NHL’s EDGE data, he was often playing this season at a slower pace than his rookie year. During the 2023-24 season, he ranked in the 75th percentile with a top speed of 22.73 miles per hour and was in the 74th percentile for speed bursts over 20 miles per hour. This season, he was below the 50th percentile with a top speed of 21.44 miles per hour and in the 54th percentile for speed bursts over 20 miles per hour.
Bedard has been putting a lot of thought into how he goes about accomplishing his goals this offseason. He didn’t get into details, but he plans on changing his approach.
“I think I’ll do stuff a bit different,” Bedard said. “I know my goals. I’ve talked to a lot of people and figure stuff out. Try to obviously improve in those areas.”
Bedard is hopeful he can make a major impact on his game this offseason. He’s seen plenty of other NHLers take advantage of the time off.
“You see guys make big strides,” Bedard said. “You look at (Nathan) MacKinnon. It seems like he’s getting faster every year and he’s one of the fastest skaters in the league. For me, I think I’m so young. I’ve only done things one certain way. You can look at little ways to change, train and approach things. I think I can make some strides this summer and hopefully I do.”
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