Can the Blackhawks, Bedard remain patient during this rebuild?
-
Emily Kaplan, Senior NHL Insider
IN THE SECOND month of his second NHL season, Connor Bedard’s sophomore slump hit hard. After matching his massive pre-draft hype by winning the Calder Trophy last spring as the NHL’s top rookie with 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games, Bedard’s production flatlined in November.
“I could name 100 things [I could do better],” Bedard said as he endured a 12-game goalless drought. “I don’t know, man. It has been frustrating, for sure.”
The teenager’s expected goals percentage was up from a season prior. His opponents were limited to fewer shot attempts when he was on the ice. But the results didn’t follow, especially in the faceoff circle, where Bedard was routinely getting defeated. The coaches even temporarily moved Bedard to the wing, hoping that could be a jump start.
TV cameras relentlessly followed Bedard during every shift, then captured every bench door he slammed and every anguished expression that followed — often in dramatic slow motion.
“It was probably the first time he’s ever had anything negative written about him,” Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno said. “It was always, ‘How good is this kid?’ Now things weren’t coming as easy. There’s a lot of internal pressure on himself, too. He really wants to be the greatest. And when he’s not impacting the game, he’s like, ‘What the hell?’ Even though it might not be him, it’s the game or the circumstance. That burden can be heavy.”
The drought fell over the Blackhawks’ trip to Vancouver, the first time Bedard could play an NHL game in his hometown. Because there was an NHLPA-mandated off day before the game against the Canucks, Bedard took an Uber to his parents’ house as soon as the team landed. He slept in his childhood bed, then spent the day with close friends and family. Staying on brand, he even whipped a few pucks in their backyard shooting range.
Many around Bedard hoped it would be the reset he needed. Not quite. Bedard was held off the scoresheet as the Canucks beat the Blackhawks 4-1 — Chicago’s 11th loss in 18 games. The cast of players auditioning as Bedard’s linemates appeared to be a never-ending carousel. Chicago kept letting games slip away late. The results cost coach Luke Richardson his job earlier this month.
From the outside, it was a nightmare situation for Bedard — who was anointed as a franchise savior well before he hit NHL ice. People wanted to compare Bedard to other top draft picks — such as this past year’s No. 1, Macklin Celebrini, or the other Connor, McDavid — then wondered if he wasn’t hitting his marks.
“I told him, ‘As much as everyone wants to build you up, there are many people who want to see you fail,'” Foligno said. “It’s sad, but that’s the world we live in. What matters is that everyone in this room wants you to do well.”
Those closest to Bedard insist they have never heard him complain about linemates or coaches — not before he got to the NHL, and certainly not now. Instead, during difficult times such as this fall, Bedard looks at himself in the mirror and thinks he might be letting everyone around him down. He is fueled by a deep desire to win, and believes if he stays disciplined to his routine, things will start to break his way.
OVER THE PAST month, Bedard seems to have rediscovered some swagger. Since breaking his drought, he has seven goals and 17 points in his last 16 games. The new interim coach, Anders Sorensen, is committed to finding solutions to help Bedard, including landing on somewhat consistent linemates in Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi.
“Honestly right now, I feel not bad,” Bedard said Sunday. “I’m playing decently. I’m always trying to get better but my game’s getting to a good spot and so is the team. We’ve been playing more aggressively, that’s probably the biggest thing. … And it’s been good working with Anders. He is to the point. He tells us what he wants and he’s passionate. He loves to win, and obviously so do I.”
The Blackhawks are in a rebuild, but they’ve lost a lot in the last two seasons. They ride a four-game losing streak into the Winter Classic, and the Blackhawks are dead last in the NHL standings. That opens them up to critique. But one thing the organization feels adamant about: the noise around Bedard’s sophomore season has been too loud and too skewed.
“It’s the funniest narrative ever, like there’s something wrong with this kid,” Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson said. “He’s 19 years old, he’s just under a point-per-game player, and somehow he’s broken? Inevitably, we want to draw every conclusion possible then we want to put it into context historically. Then there’s the answer, right? Nobody wants to wait to see how things play out.”
Davidson knows it’s hard to preach patience. It’s easy to ask if the Blackhawks are doing a disservice to a generational talent such as Bedard by not expediting their rebuild. It’s the existential question: Could placing a highly driven superstar in a losing culture for too long do too much damage?
Then there’s the issue of visibility, as the Blackhawks’ new RSN partner, Chicago Sports Network, has yet to work out a deal with Chicago’s biggest cable provider, Comcast. The Blackhawks believe Bedard will excite a new generation of Chicago fans, who were spoiled by three Stanley Cups from 2010 to 2015. Now, many haven’t been able to watch Bedard consistently, as negotiations with CHSN drag on.
But as Davidson sees it, patience is the only path forward. Ownership granted his front office the luxury of conducting a rebuild “the right way” — a years-long process, spanning several drafts — to create a sustainable contender. After finishing last season with the NHL’s second-worst record, the Blackhawks signed several veterans to patch this season’s roster as the club waits for its top prospects to develop.
“The timeline’s going to be what the players dictate and you have to be patient,” Davidson said. “You always want the immediate payoff and I understand that, but we also have to be realistic and not put players in situations that they’re not ready for. This is the first wave. But my goodness, we’re pretty excited about some of the guys that are in amateur hockey and in college and junior and in Europe.”
Recent first-rounders Frank Nazar and Kevin Korchinski earned December call-ups after tearing up minor hockey. The initial plan was for Nazar to stay in the AHL until the spring, but he forced a promotion with 11 goals and 24 points in his first 21 games in Rockford.
Over the next year, any combination of Artyom Levshunov (No. 2 pick in 2024), Oliver Moore (No. 19 in 2023), Nick Lardis (third round, 2023), Sam Rinzel (No. 25 in 2022) and Ryan Greene (second round, 2022) should follow. Ethan Del Mastro (fourth round, 2021) and Landon Slaggert (third round, 2020) are projected to make the NHL roster as role players. Perhaps most intriguing is 20-year-old Roman Kantserov (second round, 2023), who is thriving in Russia’s KHL.
Further down the pipeline, the Blackhawks are excited about their other 2024 first-rounder, 18-year-old Sacha Boisvert. They also have two elite goalie prospects in 20-year-old Adam Gajan and 22-year-old Drew Commesso.
If all goes according to plan, this group will be surrounding Bedard when the Blackhawks are ready to win again. They just have to get through the uncomfortable stage first.
“You guys came to the rink for 20 years, won Stanley Cups and beat the hell out of everybody, and you just assume that’s the way it should go every year,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said in November regarding the Blackhawks’ run of success in the 2010s. “But you’ve got good young players. Got a superstar. It’s just a matter of time.”
THE CHALLENGE FOR Bedard and the Blackhawks this season is not to not let things spiral. Nazar, who is just 20, explains it as such: not letting their record dictate the way they play, and showing up consistently every night. For a young player such as Nazar, it’s important to establish that culture. It’s easier said than done.
Foligno, who is playing in his 18th NHL season, put it bluntly: “What this season’s taught me is how hard it is to break from losing habits.”
“When you lose, things creep into your game and into your organization that you don’t want to have,” Foligno said. “And it’s hard to break out, even when you bring in different personnel, it’s still a little lingering effect that you have to work through. This year, we’ve all expected to take a bigger step than we probably have, but I don’t want to call it disappointment. There’s still 50 games left, but we’re not where we want to be right now. And I think that’s the encouraging part too, that we can get there.”
Sorensen had the unenviable task of coming in mid-season, in a league that has so little practice time. But players have noted his intentionality in how he runs drills, communicates, and shows video clips. Sorensen, who coached both in his native Sweden and for the Chicago Mission AAA before joining the Blackhawks organization, also has experience with highly skilled players; he has coached Maple Leafs star William Nylander on and off since he was 5-years-old, and considers Nylander’s father, Michael, one of his closest friends. Sorensen also coached Boston star David Pastrnak in Sweden. When Sorensen got the Blackhawks job, Pastrnak texted his former teammates Hall and Foligno that their new coach was the real deal. That helped establish credibility.
“What I’ve learned is that there is a team structure, certain things that are non-negotiable,” Sorensen said. “But with a guy like Connor, sometimes he knows more than you do as coaches. So let’s not try to cramp him. There’s so many attributes he has as a special player, so we ask him to trust his instincts, especially offensively.”
Sorensen’s initial focus was helping Bedard’s teammates help him, and that’s by getting Bedard the puck while he’s in motion. Sorensen doesn’t believe it’s ideal for Bedard to cycle through so many linemates. At the same time, the new coach is finding ways to give Bedard even more looks — putting him on different lines within games, especially in the offensive zone.
“For me, it’s simple. He’s our best player, we want him on the ice, right?” Sorensen said. “So let’s try to get him in different situations, get him away from matchups and whatnot. And he’s responded really well to that.”
In the meantime, they’ve sometimes kept Bedard away from the faceoff circle (having wings take that duty). About once a week, Yanic Perreault — one of the NHL’s greatest faceoff takers during his 859-game career, who now works with the Blackhawks as a development coach — comes to practice. Perrault, who has a similar stature to Bedard, is teaching the young center how to leverage his body, as well as a few stick tricks that can help him win against bigger centers.
Bedard is a notorious rink rat. Last season, Blackhawks coaches sometimes hid Bedard’s sticks or took the steel out of his blades to keep him from staying at the rink too long.
“Now that he’s been through the NHL grind, he has learned there’s only so much energy and you don’t want to tap into that reservoir too heavily,” Davidson said. “So I think there’s a little bit of an understanding. Having said that, he still loves it, still loves putting in the work. So he’s still around a lot.”
Bedard remains polite and accessible. He doesn’t enjoy media obligations — he’d rather be working on his game — but understands their function, and dutifully says yes to most of the requests the Blackhawks receive. Over the summer, he wasn’t initially thrilled about the pitch from Chicago Magazine to do a photo shoot at the Chicago Art Institute, recreating the iconic scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” After all, the movie came out 19 years before Bedard was born. But then it was explained why it was a big deal. And another selling point: The museum was offering to close off a wing, which they never do — only for the Obamas.
“People tend to forget he’s one of the youngest players in the league, and what he’s doing still at his age is impressive,” Foligno said. “People are going to compare him to all the greats and maybe that’s fair or unfair, but he’s going to be his own player. He’s already said that he’s not trying to be the next Sidney Crosby, the next Connor McDavid. He’s going to be Connor Bedard. And whether that takes him next year to really hit his stride or five years, it’s going to be fun to watch what he can become.”
If you picked the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers to be the first team to win 50 games this MLB season, you weren’t alone.
You were also wrong.
If you picked the Detroit Tigers, congratulations! We’re not sure we believe you, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.
The Tigers won their 50th game on Tuesday, a full day before the Dodgers, and they got there thanks to big contributions all season from ace Tarik Skubal, the red-hot Riley Greene and the resurgent Javier Baez, among many others.
But are they really as good as they’ve played so far? Are they even the American League’s best team? Could they defeat the Dodgers (or whichever team comes out of a stacked National League) in the World Series?
We asked MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Tim Keown, Jeff Passan and David Schoenfield to tackle all things Tigers before they play host to the Minnesota Twins on “Sunday Night Baseball” (7 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN2).
Who is the biggest threat to Detroit in the AL — and would you take the Tigers to beat them in an ALCS showdown?
Doolittle: The Yankees still have the AL’s best roster and remain the favorites in the circuit, even with the Rays and Astros closing in fast on both Detroit and New York. This feels like a season in which, by the time we get to October, there’s not going to be a clear-cut front-runner in the AL. But if we zero in on a possible Tigers-Yankees ALCS, I like the interchangeability of the Detroit staff, which we saw in action late last year. Max Fried and Skubal cancel each other out, so it really comes down to the number of favorable matchups A.J. Hinch can manipulate during a series of games between two postseason offenses likely predicated on timely multi-run homers.
Keown: It’s obviously the Yankees — unless it’s the Rays. Tampa’s lineup is deep and insistent, and the pitching staff is exactly what it always seems to be: consistent, stingy and comprised of guys only hardcore fans can identify. They’re really, really good — by far the best big league team playing in a minor league ballpark.
Passan: It’s still the New York Yankees. They’ve got Aaron Judge, they’ve got Fried and Carlos Rodon for four starts, they’ve got better lineup depth than Detroit. Who wins the theoretical matchup could depend on how aggressively each team pursues improvement at the trade deadline. Suffice to say, the Tigers will not be trading Jack Flaherty this year.
Schoenfield: I was going to say the Yankees as well, but as I’m writing this I just watched the Astros sweep the Phillies, holding them to one run in three games. As great as Skubal has been, Hunter Brown has been just as good — if not better. (A couple of Brown-Skubal matchups in the ALCS would be super fun.) Throw in Framber Valdez and you have two aces plus one of the best late-game bullpens in the biz. The offense? Nothing great. The difference-maker is clear: getting Yordan Alvarez healthy and hitting again.
Who is the biggest threat to Detroit in the NL — and would you take the Tigers to beat them in a World Series matchup?
Doolittle: The Dodgers are the team to beat, full stop. In many ways, their uneven start to the season, caused by so many pitching injuries, represents the lower tier of L.A.’s possible range of outcomes. And the Dodgers still are right there at the top of the majors. I can’t think of any good reason to pick against them in any 2025 competitive context. In a Tigers-Dodgers World Series — which would somehow be the first one ever — I just can’t see the Tigers scoring enough to beat L.A. four times.
Keown: The Dodgers. No need to get cute here. The Dodgers are the biggest threat to just about everything baseball-related. And while the matchup would be a hell of a lot of fun, filled with all those contradictory juxtapositions that makes a series riveting, let’s just say L.A. in seven.
Passan: It’s still the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’re getting healthier, with Shohei Ohtani back on the mound and still hitting more home runs than anyone in the National League. Will Smith is having the quietest .300/.400/.500 season in memory. Freddie Freeman is doing Freddie Freeman things. Andy Pages is playing All-Star-caliber baseball. Even Max Muncy is hitting now. And, yes, the pitching has been a problem, but they’ve got enough depth — and enough minor league depth to use in trades — that they’re bound to find 13 more-than-viable arms to use in October.
Schoenfield: A Tigers-Dodgers showdown would be a classic Original 16 matchup and those always feel a little more special. Although who wouldn’t want to see a rematch of the 1945, 1935, 1908 or 1907 World Series between the Tigers and Cubs? Those were split 2-2, so we need a tiebreaker. But I digress. Yes, the Dodgers are still the team to beat in the NL — especially since we’ve seen the Phillies’ issues on offense, the Cubs’ lack of pitching depth and the Mets’ inconsistency. The Dodgers have injuries to deal with, but there is still time for Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow and everyone else to get back.
One game, season on the line, who would you want on the mound for your team: Tarik Skubal or any other ace in the sport?
Doolittle: I’d go with Skubal by a hair over Zack Wheeler, with Paul Skenes lurking in the three-hole. The way things are going, by the end of the year it might be Jacob Misiorowski, but I’m probably getting ahead of myself. Anyway, Skubal has carried last season’s consistent dominance over and he’s just in that rare zone that great starters reach where you’re surprised when someone actually scores against them. He and Wheeler are tied with the most game scores of 70 or better (18) since the start of last season. Their teams are both 17-1 in those games. It’s a coin flip, but give me Skubal.
Keown: Skubal. There are plenty of other candidates — Wheeler, Fried, Jacob deGrom, and how about some love for Logan Webb? — but I’m all but certain a poll of big league hitters would reveal Skubal as the one they’d least like to face with everything riding on the outcome.
Passan: Give me Skubal. Even if others have the experience and pedigree, I’m going to bet on stuff. And nobody’s stuff — not even Skenes’ — is at Skubal’s level right now. He doesn’t walk anyone. He strikes out everyone. He suppresses home runs. If you could build a pitcher in a lab, he would look a lot like Skubal.
Schoenfield: I’m going with Wheeler, just based on his postseason track record: He has a 2.18 ERA over 70⅓ career innings in October, allowing no runs or one run in five of his 11 career starts. Those are all since 2022, so it’s not like we’re looking at accomplishments from a decade ago. And Wheeler is arguably pitching better than ever, with a career-low OPS allowed and a career-high strikeout rate.
What is Detroit’s biggest weakness that could be exposed in October?
Doolittle: I think elite October-level pitching might expose an overachieving offense. It’s a solid lineup but the team’s leading run producers — Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Zach McKinstry, Baez, etc. — can pile up the whiffs in a hurry. If that happens, this is a team that doesn’t run at all, and that lack of versatility concerns me.
Keown: The Tigers are the odd team that doesn’t have a glaring weakness or an especially glaring strength. They have a lot of really good players but just one great one in Skubal. (We’re keeping a second spot warm for Riley Greene.) They’re managed by someone who knows how to navigate the postseason, and they’ve rolled the confidence they gained with last season’s remarkable playoff run into this season. So take your pick: Any aspect of the game could propel them to a title, and any aspect could be their demise. And no, that doesn’t answer the question.
Passan: The left side of Detroit’s infield is not what one might consider championship-caliber. With Trey Sweeney getting most of the at-bats at shortstop, the Tigers are running out a sub-replacement player on most days. Third base is even worse: Detroit’s third basemen are barely OPSing .600, and while they might have found their answer in McKinstry, relying on a 30-year-old who until this year had never hit is a risky proposition.
Schoenfield: I’m not completely sold on their late-game bullpen — or their bullpen in general. No doubt, Will Vest and changeup specialist Tommy Kahnle have done the job so far, but neither has a dominant strikeout rate for a 2025 closer and overall the Detroit bullpen ranks just 25th in the majors in strikeout rate. How will that play in the postseason against better lineups?
With one month left until the trade deadline, what is the one move the Tigers should make to put themselves over the top?
Doolittle: The big-ticket additions would be a No. 3 or better starting pitcher or a bona fide closer — the same stuff all the contenders would like to add. A lower-profile move that would really help would be to target a shortstop like Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whose bat actually improves what Detroit has gotten from the position just in terms of raw production. But he also adds contact ability, another stolen base threat and a plus glove. For the Tigers to maximize the title chances produced by their great start, they need to think in terms of multiple roster-filling moves, not one big splash.
Keown: Prevailing wisdom says to beef up the bullpen and improve the offense at third base, which would put names like Pete Fairbanks and Nolan Arenado at the top of the list. But the pitching and offense are both top-10 in nearly every meaningful statistic, and I contend there’s an equally good case to be made for the Tigers to go all in on a top-line starting pitcher. Providing Sandy Alcantara a fresh environment would deepen the rotation and lighten the psychic load on Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize. (Every word of this becomes moot if the MLB return of 34-year-old KBO vet Dietrich Enns is actually the answer.)
Passan: Bring Eugenio Suarez home. The third baseman, who currently has 25 home runs and is slugging .569, signed with Detroit as an amateur in 2008 and spent five years in the minors before debuting in 2014. That winter, the Tigers traded him to Cincinnati for right-hander Alfredo Simon, who, in his only season in Detroit, posted a 5.05 ERA in 187 innings. Suarez’s power would fit perfectly in the Tigers’ lineup and is robust enough to get over the fence at Comerica Park, one of the largest stadiums in MLB.
Schoenfield: This is the beauty of the Tigers: They can go in any direction. As good as the offense has been, it feels like several of these guys are ripe for regression in the second half: Baez, McKinstry, maybe Torkelson and Gleyber Torres. That group is all way over their 2024 level of production. If those guys fade, an impact bat might be the answer. But is one available? Arenado certainly isn’t an impact bat anymore and might not be traded anyway. Maybe Eugenio Suarez if the Diamondbacks fade. But the likeliest and easiest answer: bullpen help.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike