The Chicago Blackhawks made it official: Connor Bedard has agreed to a five-year contract extension carrying a $15 million salary-cap hit, beginning in 2026-27 and running through 2030-31. The $75 million total and $15M AAV both leapfrog Leon Draisaitl’s $14M-per-year benchmark set last summer, making Bedard the highest-paid player in the league by average annual value.
Not bad for a guy who doesn’t turn 22 until July.
General manager Kyle Davidson didn’t lean on scouting poetry in the team’s release. “Connor has continuously defied our expectations since being drafted, and has quickly established himself as an elite player in the NHL,” he said. “He utilizes all aspects of his game to not only be a constant threat, but to make the players around him better every time he steps on the ice.”
The numbers back that up without much massaging. Bedard posted career highs across the board in 2025-26 — 30 goals, 45 assists, 75 points in 69 games. He led all Chicago skaters in assists, points, and game-winning goals (five), and finished second on the club in goals. His November was worth an NHL Third Star of the Month nod: 23 points in 14 games, third-best in the league over that span.
Here’s where the counting stats get historically inconvenient for anyone still wondering whether the first overall pick in 2023 was worth the hype. Bedard became just the third Blackhawks player to record a 30-goal season at age 20 or younger, joining Jonathan Toews (34 in 2008-09) and Eric Daze (30 in 1995-96). He hit his 200th career point on April 6 against San Jose — the first player in franchise history to reach that milestone before turning 21, and the 13th in NHL history to do so. His career line through three seasons: 203 points in 219 games, a 0.93 points-per-game rate that looks even better when you remember the roster around him has been, charitably, a work in progress.
The Calder Trophy in 2023-24 — 22 goals, 61 points, 39 assists in 68 games as a rookie — was the floor, not the ceiling. The international résumé stacks up too: gold medals with Team Canada at the 2022 and 2023 World Junior Championships, tournament MVP and a Canadian single-tournament record 23 points in seven games in 2023, and the IIHF’s Male Player of the Year the same year.
Five years is a deliberate term length. It buys out two UFA-eligible seasons and keeps Bedard under team control through age 26, but it also means he’ll be back at the negotiating table before he hits his statistical prime. For a player already producing at a top-15 rate league-wide on a bottom-tier team, the next contract — whether in Chicago or elsewhere — could reset the market entirely.
The Blackhawks’ press release listed Bedard at 5-foot-10, 190 pounds. The cap hit is considerably larger.
Sources
- NHL.com — Blackhawks Agree to Terms With Forward Connor Bedard on Five-Year Contract Extension
- NHL.com — Chicago Blackhawks News