Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard is looking to hit his stride as he enters his third NHL season.
The 20-year-old star experienced a slight sophomore slump in 2024-25, scoring 23 goals and 67 points across a full 82-game season. He had nearly identical totals in his Calder Trophy-winning rookie year despite missing 14 games due to injury.
When confronted about it, Bedard was honest about what he needed to do to reach the next level.
“It’s brief, but I think for me, a big part too is consistency,” Bedard told The Athletic. “I think last year when I was on and feeling good, I was a pretty dynamic player, and then I’d have kind of gaps in the season which weren’t as good. … You can’t have your great be great and your bad be really bad, so it’s just finding consistency and figure out what you need to do to feel good most nights.”
Bedard was pretty on-the-nose with his prognosis of his 2024-25 season. He struggled to score goals to start the season, scoring just four through the first two months of the season. That included a rough November when he scored just one goal and eight points in 12 games.
Though Bedard was able to turn it on in December, scoring five goals and 16 points, his season continued to have peaks and valleys. He stayed hot through January until his play fell off for the following two months.
In February and March combined, Bedard had five goals and 13 points in 23 total games with a plus/minus of minus-15. And with the Blackhawks living and dying by Bedard, they struggled mightily for a large portion of that stretch.
Finding that consistency is going to be easier said than done for Bedard when the team around him has struggled — and the linemates he plays with tend to change on a night-to-night basis — but the onus is on him to find it in his own game.
Bedard knows what he has to do, and he plans on doing the best he can at it as the 2025-26 season opens on Tuesday night.
