{"id":580081,"date":"2026-05-21T06:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/580081\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T06:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:22:06","slug":"blackhawks-connor-bedard-gets-98-9-million-contract-update-from-afp-analytics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/580081\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard gets $98.9 million contract update from AFP Analytics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard gets $98.9 million contract update from AFP Analytics<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Connor Bedard is set up to be the face of the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> for a long time.<\/p>\n

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But exactly how long will be determined in part by this offseason’s contract negotiations as Bedard hits restricted free agency.<\/p>\n

As an RFA, Bedard doesn’t hold all the negotiating power, but given the level of player he is, he’s still going to be paid incredibly well.<\/p>\n

The projection system produced by AFP Analytics<\/a> provides two ways of looking at Bedard’s free agency this offseason.<\/p>\n

They first put together a short-term contract projection for Bedard, which they place as a three-year deal. In that instance, they project it’d cost Chicago $9.831 million per season to secure Bedard, a total value of $28.14 million.<\/p>\n

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In that instance, Bedard would be betting on himself to earn a massive free agent deal once that shorter-term pact expired.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Canadiens, Patrik Laine on verge of major decision<\/a><\/p>\n

The other option for Bedard and the Blackhawks is to think longer term. In that case, AFP Analytics suggests the maximum length, an eight-year deal.<\/p>\n

In the eight-year projection, Bedard would get $12.364 million per season. That works out to a total value of $98.9 million.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks could probably get Bedard a little extra somewhere in the deal, too, to get the total value to be $100 million. It’s just more impressive for optics that way.<\/p>\n

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Either way, Chicago is going to have to pay Bedard a lot of money, but he seems to be worth it.<\/p>\n

Once the Blackhawks figure this out, they also have to focus on continuing to add talent around Bedard. They wouldn’t want such a big deal to go to waste.<\/p>\n

But no matter what else Chicago does, it’s safe to expect Bedard to be paid handsomely.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0How the Sabres saved their season with an epic rally turned 8-3 blowout<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard gets $98.9 million contract update from AFP Analytics originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,508,4770,5,4,640,1108],"class_list":["post-580081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-blackhawks","tag-blackhawks","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-chicagoblackhawks","tag-connor-bedard","tag-contract-negotiations","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-patrik-laine","tag-sabres"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116611130591130284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580081","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=580081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}