Chicago Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard give terse response to contract question

The topic of a looming contract extension for Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard was hard to avoid on Thursday during the team’s exit meetings.

Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, finished the season with a career-high 75 points on 30 goals and 45 assists through 69 games. Chicago finished the season with a 29-39-14 record, the second-worst record in the league.

Per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, Bedard made it clear that he thought he was ready to be named a team captain for next season.

On the subject of a contract extension with Chicago, Bedard gave a terse response to a question about his future. He wants to stay with the Blackhawks.

“I know I want to be here, and we’ll get it done soon,” Bedard said. “I don’t think if it’s not done in a month, there’s any worry.”

General manager Kyle Davidson, who recently signed a contract extension with the organization, suggested the team will have to balance giving Bedard a “fair” salary and keeping enough cap space to build a championship-caliber roster around him.

Contract negotiations could test how much Bedard wants to win, because Davidson appears ready to give his star forward a lesser salary in the promise of putting together a roster that can make the playoffs, something Chicago hasn’t participated in since 2020.

Connor Bedard wants the Chicago Blackhawks to win

Bedard said he’s tired of playing on a team that doesn’t have a chance of making the postseason.

“This kind of has to be the last year of, obviously the games aren’t meaningless, but not playing until the end of the year,” Bedard said, via the NHL. “Playing for something in the playoff standings. That’s on us as individuals. I take a lot of responsibility for that and feel like we can all just pull with the same rope.

“You saw that for kind of the first half of the year. We were in that (playoff) spot and then things kind of, we slid a little bit. As my production went down, I feel responsible for that, which adds motivation. I think all our guys are ready to make that push.”

Now it’s on Davidson to make that push in the offseason.

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Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-blackhawks-connor-bedard-terse-contract-nhl/