After having an extremely quiet offseason on the trade market and in free agency, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson has had a busy past few weeks.
Defenseman Wyatt Kaiser signed his two-year extension on Wednesday night, the day before training camp officially opened. In the last month, he’s completed deals with pending restricted free agents Frank Nazar and Spencer Knight.
That leaves one notable piece of internal business left on his plate: extending Connor Bedard.
Entering this summer, the expectation was that Knight, Nazar, and Bedard would let the season play out to maximize their future dollar values, heading into restricted free agency negotiations. Now, Bedard is all that’s left.
Davidson quieted concerns Thursday about the blossoming star’s future in Chicago.
“I have zero concern about where that’s headed,” Davidson said. “[Bedard] wants to be here for a long time. We want him here for a long time. We’re going to make that happen.”
Bedard is entering the third year of his NHL career. Since being drafted first overall by the Blackhawks in 2023, he’s become the second-highest scoring teenager in franchise history with 128 points in 150 career games, leading the team in scoring each season.
When will that translate into a long-term extension?
“I’m easy, it’s whatever,” Bedard said Thursday. “It hasn’t been ruthless. It’s all pretty chill.”
“We have a really good relationship,” Bedard added. “It’s not something that keeps me up at night or that I think of, to be honest.”
Nothing to worry about. All chill. No more questions, right?
“I’ve already had three interviews and three questions about it,” Bedard said. “That’s what everyone gets when they haven’t signed. I don’t care too much about the questions.”
Tracking Davidson’s extension pattern with the Blackhawks, the term and dollars translate to paying for future projections and production and have typically presented as fair deals.
Alex Vlasic’s contract has panned out well so far. Ryan Donato re-signed for theoretically less than what he would’ve been offered on the free agent market. Frank Nazar and Spencer Knight’s extensions have strong potential to be under-market value steals over the life of the deals.
If Davidson can do the same for Bedard, it could position the Blackhawks with a growing salary cap as a team capable of spending big in the trade and free agent market as they near their competitive window.
