Latest news with #ConnorBedard
Time of India
7 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Why did Connor Bedard reject Team Canada's World Championship invite — and what's really behind his surprising decision?
Connor Bedard has declined an invitation to play for Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Championships (Image via IMAGO/ActionPictures) Chicago Blackhawks young star Connor Bedard has opted to skip an opportunity to represent Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Championships — a decision that has sparked mixed reactions among fans and insiders. While some were hoping to see Bedard extend his standout season into the international spotlight, the 19-year-old has chosen to prioritize rest and development ahead of a crucial third NHL season. Connor Bedard turns down Team Canada invite to focus on off-season training and Blackhawks goals According to a report from Scott Powers of The Athletic, Connor Bedard was indeed invited by Team Canada but 'just decided it was best to focus his offseason elsewhere.' The decision aligns with comments Bedard made during his exit interviews, where he emphasized the importance of working on his speed this summer. 'Connor Bedard won't be playing for Canada at the World Championship this year,' Powers reported on X. 'Canada actually invited him. He just decided it was best to focus his offseason elsewhere.' Bedard's second NHL season was an impressive one. He played all 82 games and came within a single point of breaking Chicago's franchise record for points by a teenager — a feat even more notable given that he missed 14 games due to injury in his rookie year. Without that setback, he likely would've shattered the mark. Despite the hype surrounding his arrival in the NHL, some observers have noted Bedard still has room to grow to fully meet the lofty expectations placed on him. But few question his long-term potential. His decision to forgo Worlds underscores a level of maturity and commitment to development not always seen in players his age. Bedard appears laser-focused on becoming the kind of franchise-altering force the Blackhawks envisioned when they selected him first overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. With elite-level skill already on display and a strong offseason training regimen ahead, a breakout third year seems likely. Also Read: 'F**king cucks': Sean Avery humiliates Mitch Marner, Paul Bissonnette and Leafs Nation after playoff collapse Choosing not to wear the Team Canada jersey this time may disappoint some fans, but Bedard's message is clear: building something lasting in Chicago takes precedence. As he enters the 2025–26 season, all eyes will be on how this summer's work translates into results on the ice.
CTV News
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Classic Sports Moments - See 'The Rat,' the Connor Bedard of the 80s
Watch Classic Sports Moments - See 'The Rat,' the Connor Bedard of the 80sIn this Classic Sports Moment see the player who set the high-water mark for the Regina Pats that Connor Bedard has rocketed past.
CBS News
27-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
New Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill excited to work with team's young core
After a pair of failed hires and a couple of interims in between, the Chicago Blackhawks believe they have finally gotten it right with new head coach Jeff Blashill. Blashill was introduced at the United Center on Tuesday. Blashill, 51, spent the past three seasons as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Before that, he spent seven seasons as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings from 2015 to 2022. Blashill called the head coaching position with the Blackhawks the exact job he wanted, and said he is excited to work with the Blackhawks young core that includes Connor Bedard. "Working towards Connor's strengths, I think, will be important, and then just part of the process of any young player that I've ever coached — helping them become the great winning-type players that you have to be in order to compete like the four teams that are left right now," Blashill said. Of course, it is not just about developing the young players — but also about getting the team to win more games. "The best way to increase the ceiling of your team is for those individuals to get better — and that's not just the young players," Blashill said. "You know, that's asking to make sure he continues to improve his game." "I'm excited. I think that's what, you know, I think you look for is to try to blend the two, right?" said Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno. "There's no us versus them. It's trying to make this work with the group that we have, and I think I'm extremely excited about the guys that we have — especially at the end of the season." Blashill confirmed that interim head coach Anders Sörensen will be staying as part of his coaching staff. Nick Foligno said he thrilled, as Sörensen can be someone to lean on when it comes to learning about the guys on this Blackhawks team.
National Post
26-05-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Canucks: Adam Foote can add familiarity to his bench, but who's coaching offence?
Article content Foote played with Boughner in the OHL and they won a title with the Soo Greyhounds in 1990-91. They teamed up with the Colorado Avalanche over two seasons in 2003-04 and 2004-05 before Boughner turned to coaching. Article content Boughner was a Detroit Red Wings associate coach the last three seasons, and with Todd McLellan at the replacement coaching helm, the club rallied with a 6-2-2 late-season spurt to finish six points shy of a wild-card playoff berth. Article content In the process, the kids blossomed. Dynamic right-winger Lucas Raymond, 22, finished with 27 goals, while speedy centre Marco Kasper, 20, had 19 goals. And veterans Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin had 39 and 30 goals respectively. Is that a product of the player or coaching? Probably both. What Boughner gleaned from McLellan about offence will help elsewhere. Boughner also ran the bench with the Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks, and directed Windsor to back-to-back OHL titles. So he knows something about offence and how to generate it. Article content Article content Richardson was fired as Chicago Blackhawks head coach Dec. 4 after the struggling club went on a 3-9-1 slide and was 8-16-2 under his watch. The Blackhawks had the 31st-ranked offence and allowed the second-most goals. Article content Aside from UFA Ryan Donato striking for a career-high 31 goals, and Connor Bedard netting 23, including 11 on a seventh-rated power play, there just wasn't much collective pop. However, Richardson's history as an assistant with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators could help secure a job with the Canucks. Article content 'He was a great assistant,' said a Senators source. 'A real players' coach. He would be a great fit.' Article content Richardson also ran the bench for the Senators AHL affiliate. That's where he helped young prospects Jean-Gabriel Pageau, 19, Mark Stone, 20, and Mike Hoffman, 22, grow their games. Article content Stone blossomed from 15 AHL goals, learned how to play a complete game, and became a consistent NHL scorer with seven 20-goal seasons, including a career-high 28 goals with the Senators in 2018-19. Article content Hoffman went from 13 AHL rookie goals to 30 the next season and then surpassing 20 NHL goals six times, including a career-high 36 with the Panthers in 2018-19. And Pageau turned seven goals into his first AHL season into 24 with the parent Senators in 2019-20. Article content Article content
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
New Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill brings hope but faces daunting task
All Jeff Blashill has to do is develop Connor Bedard into a superstar like Connor McDavid, turn Frank Nazar into a co-No. 1 center a la Leon Draisaitl, create roles for a half-dozen or more other young forwards, foster a harmonious setting in which the Blackhawks' bevy of talented under-23 defensemen can flourish and compete for playing time rather than squabble over playing time, install a system that masks the inevitable defensive deficiencies any young team will have, oversee the eventual transition from the Nick Foligno captaincy to the Bedard or Nazar or Alex Vlasic captaincy, improve the team by, say, 20 or so standings points in his first year, and chart a path back to the playoffs in a division that already has five postseason locks that aren't going anywhere in Winnipeg, Dallas, Colorado, St. Louis and Minnesota, with Utah a couple years ahead of them in the process. Advertisement That's all. No biggie. The appeal of the Blackhawks head coaching job is obvious. It's a brand-name team in a world-class city with a huge fan base, a whip-smart general manager, a patient owner with deep pockets, and a prospect pool full of tantalizing talents who are either knocking on the door or have already knocked it down. Six of GM Kyle Davidson's eight first-round picks from the last three years are already in the NHL, and all of them either show tremendous promise or are proven commodities. Anyone who watched the last few weeks of the season knows the potential in Chicago right now. There are only 32 of these coaching jobs in the world, and as bad as the Blackhawks have been the last few years, this is still a primo gig. Of course Blashill wanted it. But the potential pitfalls of the Blackhawks head coaching job are evident, too. It's a franchise that hasn't finished a season in the playoff picture since 2017. The team has finished dead last in the Central Division and second-to-last in the Western Conference for three straight seasons. The patience of Davidson and owner Danny Wirtz has outstripped the patience of a fan base still longing for the glory days of the early 2010s. Mitch Marner, the only franchise-changing free agent on the market, is something of a long shot to sign in Chicago, so any progress is likely going to have to come from within. The reality is the Blackhawks are still probably a few years away from any sort of contention, and coaches rarely get that long of a runway. After all, Blashill is the Blackhawks' sixth head coach since the fall of 2018. The coaching game is brutal, and the task facing Blashill is daunting. The long-awaited turning of the corner has to happen under his watch, or he'll be another blip on the radar, another forgettable name just passing through. Advertisement After Joel Quenneville was fired, then-general manager Stan Bowman tapped 33-year-old wunderkind Jeremy Colliton to keep the Blackhawks' championship window propped open. He failed. Two weeks into his tenure as GM, Davidson fired Colliton. Davidson then installed Rockford IceHogs coach Derek King. His directive was simple: Lighten the mood after an abysmal start and the devastating revelations of the Jenner & Block report. King managed to do that, but the team was sub-.500 under him, with little tangible progress to speak of. He failed. Davidson replaced him with his first real hire, Luke Richardson. Richardson's job was odd. He was handed the keys to a team that was intentionally designed to lose to get the best chance to draft Bedard. His mission was to keep the vibes high in the face of utter hopelessness. He sort of succeeded in that regard, but Bedard's stagnation and the continued losing cost him his job a couple of months into his third season at the helm. He failed. Davidson again elevated the IceHogs coach to be interim coach — this time, Anders Sörensen. Sörensen's background included a lot of work as a skills coach, so his job was quite clear: Make Bedard and the other talented young Blackhawks better. Chicago was a little more offensive and a little more creative under Sörensen, and he deserves some credit for how much better the team looked after dumping some ballast at the trade deadline. But he lost more than twice as many games as he won, going 17-30-9. In other words, he failed. Godspeed, Mr. Blashill. King was there for positivity. Richardson was set up to fail. Sörensen was there for development. Blashill, on the other hand, has to be a real NHL head coach. He has to do all the things that were expected of his three predecessors, but also win games. He has to install a system that allows his players to thrive and compete. He has to build not just a positive culture, but a winning one, something that hasn't been seen in Chicago in nearly a decade. He has to turn the Blackhawks from a prospect pool into a team, from a promise to a threat, from potential to preeminence. Advertisement Davidson's counting on it. Because while he's got Wirtz firmly in his corner, you only get so many hires in this job. 'Jeff is an incredibly smart and talented coach who boasts more than 25 years of coaching experience across developmental leagues, the NHL and the world stage,' Davidson said in a released statement. 'He's thrived when in a position to develop young players, and has shown he's capable of blending that into overall team success, a vision and philosophy we share for where we are today, and where we see our team in the future. We couldn't be more excited for what's to come under Jeff's direction.' Early indications are that the fan base doesn't exactly share that excitement. But really, other than David Carle (who stayed at the University of Denver) and Mike Sullivan (who was a lock to go to the New York Rangers), who would have moved the needle? Blashill's seven-year tenure as Detroit Red Wings coach doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, but he, like so many of the recent Blackhawks coaches, wasn't exactly set up for success by management. Detroit GM Steve Yzerman's plan did Blashill no favors in his later years. But it's easy to talk yourself into Blashill. He's spoken of very highly in the hockey world. Three years working alongside Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper — widely regarded as the best coach in the NHL — can only make you better. At 51 years old, he's experienced but not ancient. He helped Detroit players such as Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond become high-end players. And roll your eyes at the retread factor all you want, but conventional wisdom in coaching circles is that your second job is where you truly prove your worth, where you apply hard-learned lessons and come into your own. Hey, Bill Belichick was famously unsuccessful as a rookie coach in Cleveland, but when he got to New England five years later, he was suddenly a genius. Can Blashill have a similar trajectory in Chicago? Sure. Maybe. And there's reason to believe, to allow yourself to hope again. There's raw talent and jaw-dropping speed everywhere you look. Maybe Blashill is the guy who can put it all together, who can not only develop all these young players but mold them into a team that can not only compete in the meatgrinder Central Division, but win in it. Maybe he's just the right guy at just the right time. Or maybe he's a couple of years too early — the task too tall, the division too tough, the road too long — in which case he'll be another footnote in Blackhawks history. There's been a lot of those lately.
