{"id":386556,"date":"2026-01-02T13:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386556\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:40:10","slug":"chicago-blackhawks-coach-praises-2-way-player-connor-bedard-after-the-center-is-left-off-canadas-roster-chicago-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386556\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Blackhawks coach praises \u20182-way player\u2019 Connor Bedard after the center is left off Canada\u2019s roster \u2013 Chicago Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill praised Connor Bedard\u2019s all-around game a day after the center was left off Canada\u2019s roster<\/a> for the upcoming Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Bedard is on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. He skated before practice on Monday and could return this month.<\/p>\n

Bedard ranked among the NHL leaders with 19 goals and 25 assists in 31 games before he got hurt on Dec. 12 at St. Louis. Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong said Wednesday that Bedard was in the mix \u201cright there to the last second,\u201d and the injury wasn\u2019t much of a factor in the decision.<\/p>\n

Connor Bedard skates before Chicago Blackhawks practice for 1st time since injuring his shoulder<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While acknowledging the difficulty of finalizing Canada\u2019s roster for the 2026 Games, Blashill took aim at some of the conversation surrounding Bedard in his third season since he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the rest of the league knows how good of a two-way winning hockey player Connor has become,\u201d said Blashill, who was hired in May. \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing probably, and I don\u2019t know why. Maybe it\u2019s based on previous years. But I don\u2019t think they have a full understanding of how good a winning hockey player he is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bedard was a gifted offensive playmaker long before his NHL debut in October 2023. But the other parts of his game have come a long way since he first joined the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

He is a plus-eight this season after he had a plus-minus rating of minus-80 while playing on two last-place teams in his first two years in the league. He has won 47% of his faceoffs, up from 38.3% last season.<\/p>\n

Blashill indicated that some of the reservations about Bedard have more to do with the limitations of defensive metrics than the center\u2019s play on the ice.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks went 13-12-6 in their first 31 games with Bedard, who still could be added to Team Canada as an injury replacement. They are 2-6-1 since he got hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the impact he\u2019s had. That\u2019s the type of two-way player (he is),\u201d Blashill said before Thursday\u2019s 4-3 victory over Dallas<\/a>. \u201cYou don\u2019t have that impact if you\u2019re just a point-getter. You only have that impact if you\u2019re a true two-way kind of winning player, and that\u2019s what he\u2019s become.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks also have been playing without Frank Nazar, who was placed on IR on Sunday after he was hit in the face by a puck during a 6-4 loss at Ottawa on Dec. 20. He is expected to be sidelined for approximately four weeks.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks lost another center when Jason Dickinson left Tuesday night\u2019s 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Islanders with an unspecified injury. But Dickinson skated on Thursday morning and played almost 19 minutes in the win against the Stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill praised Connor Bedard\u2019s all-around game a day after the center was left off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[15232,521,3542,37,96,5263,508,47239,5,3140,4,3037],"class_list":{"0":"post-386556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-2026-olympics","9":"tag-blackhawks","10":"tag-canada-hockey","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","13":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","14":"tag-connor-bedard","15":"tag-connor-bedard-olympics","16":"tag-hockey","17":"tag-jeff-blashill","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-team-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115825791744960361","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}