From Chicago Sun-Times · · 3m
Connor Bedard gets the C at 21
Chicago hands its rebuild to a 21-year-old who was already the face of the franchise before he wore the letter.
In brief
Chicago hands its rebuild to a 21-year-old who was already the face of the franchise before he wore the letter. The captaincy was the formality. Bedard earned it with three years of production and a year of visible growth in the room. Originally reported by Chicago Sun-Times.
He was already the team
From a marketing standpoint, the Blackhawks have been Bedard's team since the moment he was drafted in June 2023. The letter just made it official everywhere else.
“From a marketing standpoint, the Blackhawks have been Connor Bedard's team for three years already.”
It started with a lottery
You can trace the franchise-face status back even further, to May 2023, when Chicago won the draft lottery and the Bedard era became inevitable.
Now official everywhere
Tuesday made it real in the places that count: the locker room, the NHL's roster logs, and the banner-heavy history of the club.
“Now, the Hawks are officially Bedard's team.”
The 37th captain
Bedard becomes the 37th captain in Blackhawks history, following Jonathan Toews from 2008 to 2023 and Nick Foligno from 2024 to 2026.
Youngest in the league
At 21, heading into his fourth NHL season, Bedard is now the youngest captain in the NHL.
He called it an honor
In a statement, Bedard said he was humbled, pointed to the legacy of the captains before him, and said he doesn't take carrying it forward lightly.
“To now have the opportunity to carry that tradition forward is something I don't take lightly.”
Building something special
He thanked the organization and his teammates for the trust and promised to make the club and its fans proud.
“We're building something really special here.”
Nobody was surprised
Foligno's captaincy always read as a bridge to Bedard's. That is exactly how it played out, with only a few months between the two tenures.
He said it out loud
During exit interviews last April, Bedard openly talked about being ready to wear the C, which cemented how inevitable this was.
Best player wears the C
The modern NHL hands the letter to its best player regardless of age. Bedard joins Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Nick Suzuki and Clayton Keller. Foligno was the exception.
Kane-level numbers
Bedard has 203 points in 219 games across three seasons, matching Patrick Kane's output over his first 219. No other Hawk has topped 122 points in that span.
The five-year signal
GM Kyle Davidson pushed for a medium-length deal to send a message about commitment. Bedard signed for five years this summer and bought into the reasoning.
He got funnier
Over the last 12 months Bedard loosened up in public, letting his real personality and his media persona finally match.
“I don't really care too much about what some people think.”
Teammates vouch for him
Ryan Greene called him the perfect guy who checks in on everybody. Ryan Donato said Bedard has shown the organization he knows what it takes to win.
“He cares about his teammates and checks in on everybody all the time. He's our guy.”
Next question: the shoulder
Attention now turns to his rehab from July left shoulder surgery. He has been skating alone and doing light shooting for the past week or two.
What it means
The captaincy was the formality. Bedard earned it with three years of production and a year of visible growth in the room.
