Connor Bedard Expected to Have Instant Impact on NHL, Blackhawks
In Chicago, the Connor Bedard frenzy is just getting started. Fans packed into a draft watch party at the Salt Shed, a new indoor-outdoor music venue along the north branch of the Chicago river, as the Blackhawks formally selected the 17-year-old Canadian center with the first pick in the NHL draft in Nashville Wednesday night.
And after selling more than 500 full season tickets in 90 minutes—bringing in more than $2.5 million—after the Blackhawks won the NHL draft lottery on May 8, the team hopes Bedard will have the same impact on the ice as he has had at the box office.
More from Sportico.com
Monumental's Deal With Qatari Sovereign Wealth: Five Takeaways
Qatari Wealth Fund Buying Into Wizards Parent in $4.05B Deal
TNT has already announced that Bedard and the Blackhawks will be facing the Bruins in Boston on the NHL’s opening night in the first game of a televised doubleheader.
Bedard projects to be hockey’s next great star. He amassed 63 goals and 66 assists for 129 points at Regina in the Western Hockey League this past season. He also accumulated nine goals and 14 assists during the IIHF World Hockey Junior Championship to help Canada to the gold medal.
If Bedard lives up to that projection, he’ll be one of the biggest bargains in league history, at least for the next three seasons, after signing his first contract with Chicago.
Under the NHL salary structure, which caps rookie contracts, the top pick in this year’s draft can max out at a $13.5 million three-year contract, $4.5 million a year. This includes a base salary of $925,000, plus a signing bonus and two other levels of bonuses, according to charts available through Cap Friendly.
The rookie cap rules and the overall cap of $83.5 million per team this season gives teams in smaller hockey markets the chance to compete with the bigger markets in Chicago, Boston, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles.
“If you’re getting a superstar [like Bedard], that affects the way your team is being built,” said Arizona Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong, whose team has 12 picks in the draft, including two in the first round. “You have to have that in mind.”
Bedard is the most anticipated player to join the NHL since the Edmonton Oilers selected Connor McDavid with the top pick in the 2015 draft and the Toronto Maple Leafs picked Auston Matthews No. 1 a year later.
At the start of lottery night, the Anaheim Ducks had the best odds to win the top pick at 18.5%, followed by the Columbus Blue Jackets at 13.5%, but Chicago (11.5%) jumped them both when the team was awarded the No. 1 pick.
McDavid, who signed a three-year rookie-capped contract of $11.3 million in 2015, has been everything the Oilers could have asked for in a No. 1 pick. In 2018, McDavid inked an eight-year, $100 million deal, and this past season, he was named the winner of the Hart Trophy as league MVP. He also captured the Richard Trophy, with an NHL-leading 64 goals, and the Ross Trophy with 153 points.
Chicago hasn’t picked first since 2007, when they selected Patrick Kane. Kane signed a three-year, $11.2 million rookie contract under the cap rules back then. His most recent contract with the Blackhawks was signed in 2015 for eight years at $84 million. Kane finished this past season with the New York Rangers after a deadline trade and is now an unrestricted free agent.
The Blackhawks are a team in transition and rebuilding. They’ve missed the playoffs for the third season in a row and fifth time in the past six seasons after winning Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
Chicago’s attendance this season was their lowest since 2007-08, off by 5,500 fans per game from its 2018-19 peak the year prior to the pandemic. Last season, they were third from the bottom in the NHL in terms of attendance, capacity of 83.7% in the 20,500-seat United Center, an average of 17,167 per game for 41 home games.
Now, the team is hoping Bedard takes them back to that Cup-winning promised land.
Best of Sportico.com
