Connor Bedard to miss season start after shoulder surgery

Connor Bedard underwent surgery on his left shoulder and is expected to miss the start of the season, another blow to a Blackhawks rebuild still built around a 20-year-old who drives both production and attention. Team physician Michael Terry said Bedard should make a full recovery in about four months, a timetable that points to a return in early November and likely pushes him past Chicago’s opening games.

The injury happened while Bedard was skating with a group of NHL players in Vancouver on July 2. It adds to a pattern that has slowed the top pick in the 2023 NHL Draft at several points in his brief career: he missed 14 games as a rookie after a fractured jaw against New Jersey on Jan. 5, 2024, and later sat out 12 games after injuring his right shoulder against St. Louis on Dec. 12, 2025. Even so, Bedard has still become the club’s most important player, winning the Calder Trophy in 2023-24 and leading Chicago in points in each of his first three seasons.

Bedard finished last season with 75 points in 69 games, part of a career line of 203 points, 75 goals and 128 assists in 219 regular-season games. He turns 21 on July 17, and he remained unsigned as a restricted free agent as of July 1, when general manager Kyle Davidson said there was no update on contract talks. That timing gives the injury extra weight: Chicago has leaned on Bedard as the centerpiece of the franchise, and any delay affects not only lineup construction but also the broader pace of the rebuild.

The Blackhawks finished 29-39-14 last season, improved by 11 points, and still ended up No. 31 in the NHL for the third straight year. Chicago has not reached the playoffs since the expanded postseason after the 2020 season, and Bedard’s absence leaves the club trying to navigate the start of another year without the player most tied to its future. The front office has added depth, acquiring Bowen Byram on June 23 and signing Ian Cole and Cole Smith on the first day of free agency, but those moves now carry more weight because the team will need scoring and flexibility before Bedard returns. Ian Cole called him a “superb young talent,” and the Blackhawks now have to absorb a setback that reshapes both their opening stretch and the marketing force around their rebuild.