Bummer for Bedard: Blackhawks center will be out 6-8 weeks

The Blackhawks announced Wednesday that Connor Bedard underwent successful surgery to repair his fractured jaw at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The star forward is expected to miss 6-8 weeks, according to team physician Dr. Michael Terry, which means Bedard may not return until early March. If that's the case, Bedard would miss about 24 games, opening the race for the Calder Trophy, given to the rookie of the year.

Bedard leads all rookies with 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists). He also leads all rookie forwards in ice time at 19:04 a game.

Bedard was injured during the Hawks' 4-2 loss at New Jersey on Friday on a hit by defenseman Brendan Smith.

Coach Luke Richardson, who also had his jaw broken as a player, said he can still feel the effects of the injury to this day.

“When you go in and fix things like that, sometimes you cut nerves,” he said. “That comes back, but it never comes back fully. Your brain gets used to the feeling. So you get back to normal, and you almost have to get one good hit or one good whack to really feel and trust that the doctor’s saying it is stronger than it was before.”

Richardson missed 5.5 weeks when he was hurt and admitted that first game back can be a bit nerve-racking.

“When you get a whack and it’s a little numb, you’re a little bit shocked for a second and stop and check it,” he said. “But you’re fine. The body’s pretty resilient.

“This is probably going to be one of his first full injuries. It may take him a little bit to feel comfortable when he gets back and trust that.”

We'll see how the Calder Trophy race heats up in the coming weeks, but Bedard's top competition figures to come from Minnesota's Marco Rossi (12G, 12A), Columbus' Adam Fantilli (11G, 13A), New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes (7G, 16A, 20:06 ATOI) and perhaps Calgary's Connor Zary (9G, 12A).

Also, while a goaltender hasn’t won the Calder in 15 years, Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov (11-7-3, 2.50 GAA) and Philadelphia’s Samuel Ersson (9-5-3, 2.50 GAA) could get consideration if their strong play continues.

∎ The Blackhawks also assigned forward Brett Seney to the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL.