{"id":549158,"date":"2026-04-10T01:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T01:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:39:23","slug":"the-chicago-blackhawks-look-forward-to-bright-future-the-pacer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549158\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks look forward to bright future \u2013 The Pacer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Ryan Greene (20) celebrates with his teammates including Connor Bedard (98) \u00a0(Photo Credit to Michael Reaves\/Getty Images).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been almost three years since the Chicago Blackhawks drafted Connor Bedard first overall from North Vancouver. In that stretch of time, they have rebuild the franchise from the ground up, dishing away veterans for draft capital. Next year may finally be the year that these operations finally pay off.<\/p>\n

Connor Bedard\u2019s Growth<\/p>\n

\"\"Center Connor Bedard sporting the Blackhawks alternate black jersey in a home game at the United Center. Photo Credit to Ronald Martinez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Despite the Blackhawks not having a great season this year, young forward Connor Bedard has looked stellar. Bedard has 30 goals and counting with 42 assists as well. He has a natural ability to find the net with his signature shot, and if you watch him play, he has elite playmaking ability. Due to the rebuilding of the Hawks, he has not had the best linemates this season. If he had above average support on his wing, he\u2019d have plenty more of assists.<\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t help that Bedard missed a couple games due to a shoulder strain in December, missing 12 games<\/a>. It is possible this team could have performed way better if they managed to stay healthy, with Frank Nazar<\/a> and former captain Nick Foligno<\/a> missing time as well.<\/p>\n

Due to the trade of Nick Foligno, Bedard is basically a shoe in for the Captaincy next year. Ideally this will be a major confidence boost for the prodigy, following in the footsteps of the great former Hawk, Jonathan Toews, who was also young when he assumed the Captaincy.<\/p>\n

Bedard will be dominating the leaderboards next year, rivaling his good friend and fellow Vancouver native, Macklin Celebrini.<\/p>\n

The Future for the Hawks is Now.<\/p>\n

\"\"Anton Frondell (15) with Team Sweden. Photo Credit to Dan Hickling\/Hickling Images.<\/p>\n

Recently, one of the Hawk\u2019s top prospects, Anton Frondell was called up from the SHL (Swedish Hockey League). He has looked stellar in his first couple of games, with one goal and five assists in his first six. I previously compared Bedard to Toews, and Frondell could be the new Patrick Kane for this Blackhawks team.<\/p>\n

There are a plenty of other young promising players on this team. Frank Nazar has been growing and developing his style of play. Defensively, Louis Crevier and Alex Vlasic have looked great. Young goaltender, Drew Commesso, who has been playing for Chicago\u2019s farm system in the AHL, has played well. When he was called up to the NHL, he was able to record a shutout<\/a> against the Nashville Predators in his first NHL win.<\/p>\n

Goaltending is not a Problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Spencer Knight makes a body save for the Chicago Blackhawks. Photo Credit to Matt Marton\/Imagn Images.<\/p>\n

Spencer Knight is the goaltending piece of the puzzle that many teams struggle to find. Luckily the Blackhawks were able to acquire this piece early enough to build a good rapport with the team.<\/p>\n

Knight has played great for a team with a young and struggling defense. For the year he\u2019s posting a 2.72 GAA (Goals Against Average) and a .907 save percentage. He has also received three shutouts under his belt as well. This is a franchise goaltender who is able to stand as the backbone for the team in a potential playoff run.<\/p>\n

All the Blackhawks need to do now is to make a big splash into free agency this season, and to give Bedard the contract extension he deserves. Ilya Mikeyev is also a player who has earned an extension due to his valuable contributions to the penalty kill, which is currently the second best in the league. The Blackhawks have one of the brightest future projections in the entire NHL.<\/p>\n


\n \"Print
\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Featured Image: Ryan Greene (20) celebrates with his teammates including Connor Bedard (98) \u00a0(Photo Credit to Michael Reaves\/Getty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-549158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-blackhawks","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","11":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116377863888829820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549158","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=549158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}