{"id":315641,"date":"2025-11-26T23:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/315641\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T23:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:02:11","slug":"what-will-connor-bedards-next-contract-look-like-for-the-blackhawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/315641\/","title":{"rendered":"What will Connor Bedard\u2019s next contract look like for the Blackhawks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor Bedard is aware when others around the NHL sign a new contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just see it like everyone sees it,\u201d Bedard said in response to a recent question about whether he\u2019s paying attention to other players\u2019 new deals.<\/p>\n

But as is often the case with Bedard, he isn\u2019t like everyone else. There\u2019s nothing normal about Bedard, at least when it pertains to hockey. Financially, that will soon be the case, too. He\u2019s the next up-and-coming young player everyone will be watching to see what he gets on his first contract out of his entry-level deal. He\u2019s due for a new contract for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

Considering the major market he\u2019s in with Chicago, how he\u2019s already made an impact for the Blackhawks on and off the ice, what he\u2019s developing into as a player in his third NHL season and the increasing salary cap, there are plenty of reasons for intrigue.<\/p>\n

But while others are discussing and debating what Bedard\u2019s next contract will look like, he\u2019s been as chill as can be. According to him, he\u2019s not even thinking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not at all, really,\u201d Bedard said Monday. \u201cI\u2019m just playing. That stuff will happen when it happens. It\u2019s not really something I\u2019ve thought about at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here at The Athletic, we have, though. Let\u2019s dive into what Bedard\u2019s next contract could be for the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

To start, there is the Blackhawks\u2019 overall financial picture to assess. That picture is as clear as day for general manager Kyle Davidson. The increasing cap will open cap space for nearly every team around, but few will have the cap space Davidson will possess in the coming years. That said, don\u2019t expect Davidson to spend that money wildly. Davidson\u2019s long-term plan revolves around building from within. If he hits on enough of his 11 first-round picks and five second-round picks from the last four years, that cap space will soon be consumed by all of his young players.<\/p>\n

As that cap situation relates to Bedard, wherever his cap number falls the next few years, and especially for the 2026-27 season, will assist the Blackhawks in the short term. One of Davidson\u2019s hurdles in roster construction in the next few years, because there will be so much reliance on young players, is getting to the cap floor. Even after taking care this past offseason of extensions for Frank Nazar and Spencer Knight \u2014 who will have a combined cap hit around $12.4 million \u2014 the Blackhawks still have just around $50 million in dedicated cap hits next season. That includes 15 players signed for next season, TJ Brodie\u2019s buyout and Seth Jones\u2019 retained cap hit. Based on where next season\u2019s cap floor is expected to be, the Blackhawks would still be about $20 million short.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Davidson will be handing Bedard a blank check. Davidson is well aware of how quickly the salary cap gods can come for a young and promising team. He witnessed it as the Blackhawks made tough financial decisions on players due to limited cap space during their Stanley Cup years. It could help that Davidson so far has seemed to find manageable cap numbers whenever he\u2019s locked in a player. Alex Vlasic was first, and he signed a six-year deal with a $4.6 million cap hit. Nazar and Knight were next. Nazar signed a seven-year extension with a $6,599,991 cap hit. Knight signed a three-year extension with a $5,833,333 cap. Beyond them, Davidson will have first-round picks Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore due for new deals after the 2026-27 season. Wyatt Kaiser, who just signed a short-term extension, will be up after the 2026-27 season, too. All four players are expected to be part of the long-term future. Others are coming, too.<\/p>\n

Davidson would have undoubtedly loved to square away Bedard\u2019s deal this past offseason, as he did with Nazar and Knight. Bedard\u2019s value would have still been high, but it\u2019d be nowhere near as high as it is now. Bedard\u2019s game has gone to a whole other level in his third NHL season, and he\u2019s placed among the league\u2019s best. Through 22 games this season, he\u2019s produced 13 goals, 18 assists and 31 points. He\u2019s also showing signs of being a more reliable two-way player and a legitimate center. He\u2019s even worn an alternate captain letter lately. He\u2019s becoming everything the Blackhawks hoped he would be.<\/p>\n

But whether it was Bedard\u2019s desire or his agents\u2019 advice, he opted to wait. He wasn\u2019t rushing into anything. Because of that, his second contract will probably be grander. While that will likely cost the Blackhawks more, his recent ascension does remove any doubt that he can be in the NHL what he was expected to be coming out of junior. The Blackhawks can be sure of what they\u2019re paying for. To go along with that, regardless of when Bedard signs, whether that\u2019s today or after the season, no one would blame him for asking the going rate for a franchise player.<\/p>\n

Market trends would also back up Bedard\u2019s ask if he is looking for a long-term franchise contract. Luke Hughes signed a $9 million AAV contract after his entry-level deal expired. Lane Hutson\u2019s next deal kicks in next season and is just a shade below that. But the best comparable is Logan Cooley, the third overall pick in the 2022 draft, who signed for eight years, at $10 million a year, which will start next season as well.<\/p>\n

That is pretty in line with what Evolving-Hockey<\/a> has projected for Bedard, if he were a free agent this past season. That model forecasts an eight-year, $10.6 million extension for the Blackhawks\u2019 cornerstone. Signing any player to a contract of that magnitude, even in today\u2019s growing cap world, carries an element of risk. Bedard\u2019s first two seasons did little to minimize that risk, but he\u2019s now projected to be worth that and more.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s first-quarter glow up contributes to Bedard\u2019s rising market value, according to The Athletic\u2019s Dom Luszczyszyn\u2019s model. Over the next eight years, he is projected to be worth an average value of $16.9 million. That\u2019s a sky-high number that few NHLers have reached in recent years. For context, Leon Draisaitl\u2019s league-high actual salary for this season comes in below it at $16.5 million, with Nathan MacKinnon\u2019s $16.1 million coming in behind. It\u2019s a threshold that Kirill Kaprizov will cross next year with a $17 million AAV. So will Jack Eichel in Year 1 of his new contract with an actual salary of $17.7 million (on a contract carrying an AAV of $13.5 million).<\/p>\n

Bedard\u2019s next contract won\u2019t likely be in that stratosphere. Few NHLers get there, especially restricted free agents who generally don\u2019t have as much leverage in contract negotiations. But what that high market value shows is that the Blackhawks really can\u2019t go wrong here; the team is going to benefit from surplus value whether he signs in the $10-$11 million range, like Cooley and Evolving-Hockey projects, or pushes that deal a little bit higher. Some of Bedard\u2019s closest player comps help point to the idea of him living up to the hype of his next contract \u2014 from Eichel and MacKinnon, to John Tavares. Clayton Keller shows that the star track is still possible, even after a more sluggish start. Sean Monahan is the one potential red flag here; the context of his injury situation contributes to his downward trend.<\/p>\n

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Bedard\u2019s AAV will depend on whether he seeks a short- or long-term deal, too. A longer-term contract is the more traditional path for a franchise cornerstone such as Bedard. Connor McDavid, Eichel and Draisaitl were all signed to eight-year deals after their ELCs. MacKinnon\u2019s second contract was seven years, while wingers Mitch Marner, David Pastrnak, William Nylander and Mikko Rantanen were all extended for six years. And if the Blackhawks don\u2019t extend Bedard early enough, seven years will be the next maximum contract option when the new CBA kicks in.<\/p>\n

But there is precedent for an even shorter deal. Just look at Auston Matthews, whose second contract carried a five-year term. Or in Tampa Bay, where Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov agreed to three-year post-ELC contracts before jumping to long-term deals. Evolving-Hockey\u2019s model does point to a lesser cap hit for shorter-term deals; a three-year deal came in at $7.76 million a year when these projections came out last summer. If Point\u2019s contract is comparable, then his cap hit percentage of 8.3 in Year 1 could be translated to around $9 million in 2026-27.<\/p>\n

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But Bedard could still push even higher, to that $10-plus million mark, on a shorter contract; his average market value for the next three years comes in at $13.6 million. This path would allow Bedard to maximize his earnings over his next two contracts, as the cap presumably continues to rise. It just could create a bit of a jam for the Blackhawks in the long run, because he could easily sign for $10-plus million now, and then demand an even greater raise in a few years.<\/p>\n

Davidson\u2019s goal will be to persuade Bedard to accept something that more easily allows the Blackhawks to pay and retain all their young and promising players in the future. Bedard will undoubtedly be pitched on how taking less money will lead to more winning. Bedard\u2019s role model growing up was Sidney Crosby, and sticking to $8.7 million throughout his career has done Crosby well. But it\u2019s also important to remember that when Crosby first agreed to that figure, it was 15.34 percent of the cap ceiling. That same cap percentage would be about $15.95 million next season.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks will do their best to keep Bedard from that high an amount, but there won\u2019t likely be much pushing and pulling from them. His contract will probably be whatever he wants. The Blackhawks have come to terms with that. All indications are also that the Blackhawks will be a team that spends to the cap, even as it increases, just as they did when they were winning Cups last decade. Blackhawks chairman Danny Wirtz recently said he envisions the Blackhawks continuing to be spenders as long as it\u2019s warranted. Davidson will have to explain why it\u2019s warranted, but that could be self-explanatory if the team is winning.<\/p>\n

Bedard\u2019s contract will obviously be warranted at almost any number. Will it align with Cooley or someone else\u2019s? We can continue to discuss, but don\u2019t expect Bedard to chime in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking at that,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that\u2019s worrying me right now or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Bedard is aware when others around the NHL sign a new contract. \u201cI just see it like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-315641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}