Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is apparently impressed by Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard’s hot start to his third NHL season.
Williams shared a video on his Instagram story of Bedard’s hat trick during Tuesday’s 5-2 home win over the Calgary Flames with the caption “bro so tuff.”
Williams was selected by the Bears with the No. 1 pick of the 2024 NFL draft, about one year after Bedard went to the Blackhawks with the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NHL draft.
Bedard won the 2024 Calder Trophy after leading his rookie class in goals and points despite missing 14 games with a broken jaw.
He was unable to take a major step forward during his second NHL season, however, when he finished the campaign with just six more points despite playing all 82 games.
That looks set to change now that Bedard has established himself as one of the NHL’s top scorers early in 2025-26 campaign.
Bedard is heading into Wednesday with 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) in just 19 games, ranking him behind only Nathan MacKinnon, Macklin Celebrini and Connor McDavid for the fourth most points in the NHL.
That has included his second career hat trick Tuesday against the Flames, which he capped off with an empty-netter shot all the way from the Hawks’ own faceoff dot.
The win helped the Blackhawks improve to 10-5-4 to start the season.
That’s a significantly faster pace than last year, when it took the team until Dec. 15 to notch their 10th win of the campaign. Were the playoffs to begin today, it would be enough to earn them a Wild Card spot.
The Bears, who are similarly looking to take the next step in an ongoing rebuild, meanwhile maintained their NFC North lead by improving to 7-3 with last Sunday’s win over the host Minnesota Vikings.
Chicago sports fans will hope Bedard and Williams can continue living up to the hype surrounding their respective drafts by leading their teams back into the playoffs in 2026.