{"id":9969,"date":"2025-01-10T15:48:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=9969"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:48:56","slug":"breaking-were-starting-to-see-the-blackhawks-youth-movement-and-that-excites-connor-bedard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=9969","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: We&#8217;re Starting to See the Blackhawks&#8217; Youth Movement (and that Excites Connor Bedard)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bleachernation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Connor-Bedard_USATSI_25145826-1024x508.jpg\" alt=\"Connor Bedard Chicago Blackhawks\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Blackhawks beating the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night felt significant. Not because the team with the worst record in the league beat one of the more talented, hotter teams in the NHL. But it was how they won the game \u2014 and who impacted the game.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connor Bedard<\/strong> got the headlines, and for good reason. He was flying all over the ice. His tenacious forecheck created the loose puck that turned into the first goal of the night. He crashed the net and appeared to score a go-ahead goal (that was taken off the board because he kicked it in), and later came back and ripped a nasty shot to give the Blackhawks some breathing room. He was really good last night.<\/p>\n<p>But for so much of his now 1.5 years in the NHL, Bedard has seemed to be doing these things in a vacuum. He\u2019s been alone in the category of exciting, young player in a Blackhawks sweater. That wasn\u2019t the case on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>The game-winning goal came off the stick of <strong>Frank Nazar<\/strong>, who had a spectacular night. He was dynamic in every zone, played smart defensively, was strong at the dot and created chances for himself and his linemates.<\/p>\n<p>The primary assist on Nazar\u2019s goal came from <strong>Colton Dach<\/strong>, his first career NHL point. Dach was also good last night, making an impact in only 11 minutes of ice time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">NHL GameScore Impact Card for Chicago Blackhawks on 2025-01-08: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/b9c4hH93ci\">pic.twitter.com\/b9c4hH93ci<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hockeystatcards\/status\/1877194326301606238?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nBefore this season started when Blackhawks general manager met with the media, he was asked about the volume of veterans he signed over the summer and if it was going to be hard for young players to get a shot at the NHL. His response was that the organization wants young players to be truly ready to come up and consistently make an impact in the NHL. And, when prospects showed that in Rockford, the organization would make room for them.<\/p>\n<p>Nazar and Dach are two of the young pieces who are viewed as the first forwards in the next wave of the rebuild to be NHL contributors. Dach appeared in 78 games in the AHL before getting the call to the NHL. Nazar spent two years at Michigan, albeit the first of which was limited because of injury, before getting a taste of the NHL at the end of last year. He played in 21 games for the IceHogs before coming to Chicago this year.<\/p>\n<p>Injuries have afforded the Blackhawks more runway with some young defensemen this season, and they have responded well. <strong>Nolan Allan<\/strong> has now appeared in 34 games this season, which ranks fourth among Blackhawks defensemen. <strong>Wyatt Kaiser<\/strong> has played in 31 (with a four-game dip to Rockford). <strong>Louis Crevier<\/strong> has now appeared in 12 games. And <strong>Kevin Korchinski<\/strong> got called up for a nine-game run before heading back to Rockford.<\/p>\n<p>Having Nazar and Dach on the NHL roster right now means the Blackhawks are scratching two forwards. <strong>Philipp Kurashev<\/strong> has been a staple in the press box recently, but the other spot has been somewhat up for grabs. <strong>Lukas Reichel<\/strong> has been on the outside looking in frequently, but he got back in the game against Colorado. <strong>Pat Maroon<\/strong> was a scratch against the Avs. Other veterans \u2014 more than we likely expected before the season began \u2014 have been scratched this season as well.<\/p>\n<p>The focus on the present product being improved is being balanced with eyes on the future.<\/p>\n<p>It has to be.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bleachernation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Frank-Nazar_USATSI_23028217.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bleachernation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Frank-Nazar_USATSI_23028217.jpg 1210w, https:\/\/www.bleachernation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Frank-Nazar_USATSI_23028217-300x149.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bleachernation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Frank-Nazar_USATSI_23028217-1024x508.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bleachernation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Frank-Nazar_USATSI_23028217-768x381.jpg 768w\" alt=\"We're Starting to See the Blackhawks' Youth Movement (and that Excites Connor Bedard) - Bleacher Nation\" width=\"1210\" height=\"600\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 1210px) 100vw, 1210px\" \/><figcaption>Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Keeping tabs on the Blackhawks\u2019 future<\/h2>\n<p>Earlier this week I shared some interesting comments from Davidson from a podcast he did with Elliotte Friedman in which he spoke about Bedard asking frequently about how the organization\u2019s prospects are performing. Here\u2019s part of that comment:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll ask how some of the prospects are doing and how they\u2019re looking,\u201d Davidson told Friedman. \u201cBecause he\u2019s formed relationships with these players either at training camps or development camps or the draft. How are they doing and how are they looking?\u2026 And we always have a pretty active dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With that in the back of my mind, after watching the game on Wednesday night, I asked Bedard a couple questions about Nazar and Dach in the postgame scrum. First, I asked Bedard about the energy Nazar and Dach brought to the game:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cI mean, you see Frankie getting better every game and playing really well, creating a lot. It feels like every game is his next best game. It\u2019s so fun to watch. Just the amount of skill and poise he has. To see him put one in, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s going to go on a roll now. And same with Dach since he\u2019s come up \u2014 he\u2019s been great. He\u2019s brought a lot of energy to our group and played so hard. So for him to got his first point, it\u2019s always exciting to see and they were obviously thrilled.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I followed up with a pointed question about the impact seeing young guys coming up and making a difference has on him.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe\u2019ve have a lot of picks in the last few years,\u201d Bedard said \u201cObviously I\u2019m focused on our current team, but when you see guys come up, Frankie. Dacher, Korch, all these guys that come up and look really good, it\u2019s just exciting because Frankie\u2019s 20, Dacher\u2019s 21. It\u2019s going to get so much better. And obviously that\u2019s exciting to see.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the midst of a rough season at the NHL level, trying to find the food crumbs to the promise of the future can be hard. So this perspective from a 19-year-old, who is present in the moment but also has a larger perspective, is impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Because, at some point, we\u2019ll probably see <strong>Landon Slaggert<\/strong> come up this year. And maybe <strong>Samuel Savoie<\/strong>. Korchinski could return. <strong>Ethan Del Mastro<\/strong> might as well. The stairsteps to the future are starting to be built. And the early returns are starting to be increasingly encouraging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Blackhawks beating the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night felt significant. Not because the team with the worst record in the league beat one of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks","category-nfl","category-san-francisco-49ers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: We&#039;re Starting to See the Blackhawks&#039; Youth Movement (and that Excites Connor Bedard) - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=9969\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: We&#039;re Starting to See the Blackhawks&#039; Youth Movement (and that Excites Connor Bedard) - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Blackhawks beating the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night felt significant. 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