Connor Bedard didn\u2019t want to jump into a decision after the NHL season on whether he\u2019d play for Team Canada at the upcoming World Championship in Switzerland.<\/p>\n
His initial instinct is always to play more hockey. But after missing time this season with an injured shoulder, Bedard understood he owed it to himself and the Chicago Blackhawks to do what was best for next season. It\u2019s what ultimately drove his recent decision to decline Canada\u2019s offer to play in the international tournament and focus on getting his shoulder to where it needs to be for next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of seeing obviously how your body\u2019s feeling after the season and take a week or whatever,\u201d Bedard said by phone on Friday. \u201cI feel pretty good for the most part. I think just talking to doctors and stuff and obviously given the injury I had, just a little more time to rehab. I wouldn\u2019t say heal, but kind of rehab and get that strength and stuff would be beneficial. It\u2019s kind of a big thought process behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard injured his right shoulder during a game on Dec. 12, 2025, and returned nearly a month later after missing 12 games. In his return, he abstained from taking faceoffs until late February to give his shoulder additional time to strengthen. He produced 19 goals and 25 assists in 31 games prior to the injury. After coming back, he had 11 goals and 20 assists in his final 38 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it felt pretty good, honestly, especially after the Olympic break,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cMaybe the 10 games or whatever coming back, it didn\u2019t feel bad, but I think obviously you\u2019re just coming back from injury and getting used to it all again. And then after the Olympic break, I thought I played my best hockey up until maybe 10 games left. I felt really good with it. I think it was good, and that\u2019s a positive sign. But like I said, it\u2019s time to make sure it\u2019s at the best possible place it can be going into next season.\u201d<\/p>\n
With every one of Bedard\u2019s decisions on playing for Team Canada, there often comes an extra layer of attention. He played for Canada at the World Championship in 2024 after his NHL rookie season. He opted last year not to play for Canada and focused on his individual development after a disappointing second NHL season. He wasn\u2019t selected to Canada\u2019s Olympic team in February. Some fans wondered whether Bedard turning down Canada\u2019s previous invitation impacted his Olympic chances. No one from Team Canada indicated that, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name was right there till the last second because we could have named him and then moved forward,\u201d Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong said at the time. \u201cThe reality is there are so many good players, and we just had difficult decisions to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard didn\u2019t sound worried that his decision this year would impact his standing with Team Canada in the future. There is a lot of time until the next Olympics. Still, he doesn\u2019t like turning down chances to play for Canada or just playing competitively.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get the opportunity (to play for Canada), it\u2019s hard to say no,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cLike it\u2019s May 1 and I already miss playing hockey games, dreading not being able to play games for four or five months. To say no to an opportunity where you get to play games and play for your country is hard. But at the end of the day, my number one focus is the Blackhawks and being the best player I can be come October or whatever the season starts. I feel like this is going to be beneficial to me in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard has already put in some offseason work. He joined Blackahwks teammate Oliver Moore in attending Adam Oates\u2019 camp in Florida recently. Bedard said they were there for three or four days and got on the ice a few times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think any coach you work with or skate with, you can learn stuff from, especially someone with a career like that,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cSo I think for me, it\u2019s taking everything that I can learn and trying to apply it as best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard has been trying this offseason to relax more and step away from hockey. His way of relaxing is playing golf.\u00a0He described his game as OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t committed myself enough the past few summers,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cI\u2019m going to try to work on it a little more this year. The itch is definitely there, so I got to do what I can. But I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m elite, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard does plan to sit down with Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson at some point this offseason and negotiate his next contract. As Bedard has said a number of times, it\u2019s not keeping him up at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever suits (Davidson) and the staff,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a really busy time from when the lottery is, whenever that is, until the end of the development camp and then obviously they kind of get to breathe a bit. But yeah, just whenever, whatever works for both of us and have a chat obviously with my agents and stuff. I\u2019ve said it lots of times, not worrying about it, thinking about it at all. So, yeah, just kind of whenever we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Bedard didn\u2019t want to jump into a decision after the NHL season on whether he\u2019d play for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,99],"class_list":["post-619621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619621","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=619621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}