{"id":554095,"date":"2026-04-16T21:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554095\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:42:33","slug":"blackhawks-urged-to-fulfill-connor-bedard-trade-need-this-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554095\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks urged to fulfill Connor Bedard trade need this offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> have one great thing going for them: Connor Bedard.<\/p>\n

They could use some help, though, and that’s what this offseason will be about.<\/p>\n

The main need? It might be to find a great winger to pair with Bedard.<\/p>\n

Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Trudeau<\/a>\u00a0wrote in a new article on Thursday that if he was Chicago, he’d prioritize that wing spot over defense.<\/p>\n

“After giving up the most expected 5-on-5 goals of any team this season by some distance, you might expect the Hawks to try to beef up their defense,” Trudeau writes. “They would likely prefer a player or two out of their current D corps, the oldest of whom is 24-year-old Alex Vlasic, to take another step up and lead the group. Instead, expect the Blackhawks to take a serious swing for the sort of top-line winger Connor Bedard has been missing during his young career.”<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Maple Leafs’ president brought AI trade pitches to deadline meetings<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago would likely have the talent it takes to get any sort of deal done, if they can find a taker.<\/p>\n

“They have more good prospects than will ever fit in their lineup on hand to make a deal work, and nabbing a 70-point player to stick next to Bedard could have an explosive effect on Chicago\u2019s offensive ceiling after the wunderkid\u2019s year-three breakout,” Trudeau writes. “As a bonus, a new top-line wing would help justify Jeff Blashill\u2019s preference for keeping 32-goal-scorer Tyler Bertuzzi separate from Bedard and in the middle six, where Bertuzzi has already developed significant chemistry with both Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell.”<\/p>\n

Although Bedard didn’t make Team Canada for the 2026 Olympics, he otherwise took the growth steps in 2025-26 that the Blackhawks would’ve been hoping for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, it’s up to Chicago to surround him with the best possible talent. It’s time to turn a Bedard-led team into a winner.<\/p>\n

More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks have one great thing going for them: Connor Bedard. They could use some help, though,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-554095","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\/116416567292613703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554095","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=554095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}