Column: As hype greets the start of the Connor Bedard era, Chicago Blackhawks fans might be wise to temper early expectations

When we last saw the Chicago Blackhawks play a real game at the end of the 2022-23 season, management let everyone know the team was moving on from Jonathan Toews.

That made the season finale a tribute to the Hawks legend — and the official end of the Toews-Patrick Kane era.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily putting the past behind us,” general manager Kyle Davidson said that day. “It’s more so clearing the deck to some extent to allow the organic growth for young players into leadership roles and offer this new era of Blackhawks players the same opportunity that Toews, Kane, (Duncan) Keith, (Brent) Seabrook, they were all offered when they came into the league.

“When there’s a player like Jonathan or Patrick in your locker room, you defer to them.”

No one dreamed that night the Hawks would beat the odds in the draft lottery and get the rights to a once-in-a-generation talent in Connor Bedard, the savior Hawks fans have been waiting for.

But now Bedard is here, at age 18, ready to prove he’s everything we’ve heard about for the last three years.

Whether it’s humanly possible to meet the hype that greeted Bedard’s arrival remains to be seen, but we’re about to find out.

The NHL wisely decided to have the Hawks open their season Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, matching up Bedard with another generational talent in Sidney Crosby — on ESPN of course.

The proverbial passing of the baton will be on full display, with Bedard’s debut marking the start of a new era for the Hawks, who averaged 63 1/2 points the last two seasons.

The preseason wasn’t a true indicator of what Bedard can do on the ice, so it might be prudent to lower expectations at the outset. But that’s easier said than done, especially after watching the highlight reels and looking at the gaudy numbers he posted as a 17-year-old in the Western Hockey League.

By the time Bedard plays his first home game at the United Center on Oct. 21 against the Vegas Golden Knights, five games into the season, we’ll probably have a better indication of what’s in store. No matter what he does in these first five games, it will be difficult for Bedard to match Kane’s first home game on Oct. 6, 2007, when he scored the game-winner against Dominik Hašek in a 4-3 shootout victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

“It’s funny because I grew up watching the (Buffalo) Sabres and Dominik Hašek, and next thing you know I’m going (against him) in a shootout,” Kane said afterward. “Time flies. Unbelievable. On Dominik Hašek. The guy I used to grow up watching.”

That night truly felt like the start of a new era. Chairman Rocky Wirtz had taken over the team from his father, Bill, who had died a couple of weeks earlier. After the win in the home opener, coach Denis Savard said, “That one was for Mr. Wirtz,” referring to Bill.

Now Bedard’s debut comes 2 1/2 months after the death of Rocky, whose son, Danny, assumes the chairman’s mantle. Like Bedard, Danny Wirtz has big shoes to fill. The Hawks won three Stanley Cups under his dad, who was credited for saving a franchise that had sunk to a new low in the early 2000s in terms of fan base and relevancy.

Now it’s up to Danny and his management team to build the Hawks back up from the muck to the standard of excellence they enjoyed a decade ago.

“There’s a refrain that we like to joke about in the family — and some of the business associates know — that (Rocky) used the term, ‘Just figure it out,’” Danny told the Tribune’s Phil Thompson. “Which was his way of saying, ‘No challenge is too hard. We’ll just figure it out.’ And in the context of his passing, obviously we’re in the middle of the figuring-it-out stage of life without him.”

“Figure it out” could be a fitting motto for these Hawks, a blend of young talent and past-their-prime veterans brought in to provide some of the “organic growth” Davidson alluded to when he waved goodbye to Toews in April.

The 35-year-old executive known as “Kyle from Chicago” also will be under the microscope entering his third season on the job after replacing Stan Bowman in October 2021. Davidson lucked into Bedard and now must surround him with the kind of talent that facilitates his ascension to one of the game’s top players.

Corey Perry, Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall aren’t expected to return to their glory days, but the more they can lead by example and rub off on youngsters such as Bedard, Alex Vlasic and Kevin Korchinski, the better off the Hawks will be in fast-forwarding the rebuild, which already was in progress when Bedard arrived.

Chicago is having rebuild fatigue, with the Bears in the midst of theirs and the White Sox possibly starting another one after their rebuild went south the last two years.

Bedard’s presence perhaps buys them a couple of years of patience, but the Hawks need to take a few steps forward this season and next and hopefully be competitive by 2025-26.

Kane and Toews were fortunate to have enough talent on the roster that the Hawks made it to the Western Conference finals against the Red Wings in their second year, then beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Final in their third season.

Chicago was in the palm of their hands thereafter.

No one expects Bedard and Co. to win that quickly, but they might as well aim high.

At this point, the Hawks have nothing to lose.