Blackhawks place Bedard on injured reserve

Posted December 15, 2025 3:00 pm

By Scott Powers and Jon Greenberg

Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard was placed on injured reserve on Monday for an upper-body injury, and Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said he’ll be re-evaluated after the new year.

Bedard suffered an apparent shoulder injury that Blashill called a “freak accident” in the closing moments of the Blackhawks’ game against the St. Louis Blues on Friday. With the Blackhawks down a goal with 0.8 seconds remaining in the third period, Bedard took a faceoff in the Blues’ zone against Brayden Schenn and attempted to shoot the puck as it was dropped. Although Schenn cross-checked Bedard and knocked him to the ice, Blashill previously said the contact was not what caused the injury. Bedard immediately reached for his right shoulder and skated off the ice in pain.

“It could have been a worse prognosis,” Blashill said Monday, adding that Bedard doesn’t require surgery “at this time.”

“His attitude is good,” Blashill said. “I think he wants to be back next week. That’s kind of the approach that he takes and he wants to be back. He would have preferred I said ‘day-to-day.’ But out of fairness to all of you, what the reality is, is we won’t let him do that before after the new year.”

The injured-reserve designation is retroactive to Friday, and players placed on IR cannot participate in games for a minimum of seven days. Using Blashill’s marker of the new year, the Blackhawks play eight games between now and Jan. 1, starting Tuesday in Toronto. They play 17 games between Jan. 2 and the Olympic break, which begins Feb. 6.

The Blackhawks lost 4-0 to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday in the first game Bedard missed due to the injury.

Bedard, the 2023 No. 1 draft pick, was off to the best season start of his career and had created, with a few other up-and-coming players, an early-season buzz around the league. Bedard was among the league’s leaders with 19 goals, 25 assists and 44 points through his first 31 games. He also recorded his first two NHL hat tricks this season.

Bedard’s play had been a major reason for the Blackhawks’ early success. They went 13-12-6 with him in the lineup this season after finishing near the bottom of the league in his first two seasons. Bedard registered a goal or an assist on 48.4% of the Blackhawks’ 91 goals this season. That percentage was 16.7 last season.

Blashill made Frank Nazar the Blackhawks’ No. 1 center in Bedard’s place. The coach talked Monday about what Chicago will need to do in their young star’s absence.

“I think we’re going to have to score dirtier,” Blashill said. “We’re gonna have to score those net-front type goals, the tip-type goals. You know you’re not going to score from distance the way Connor can score from a distance at a regular rate, so we’re gonna have to make sure we’re scoring dirty.”

The 20-year-old Bedard is in the final year of his three-year entry-level contract and will be due a new contract for the 2026-27 season. Bedard has expressed patience when asked this season about getting the contract finalized.

“Obviously, it sucks losing a guy as great as him,” Nazar said Monday. “He’s playing very good, very consistent hockey. … I think it’s gonna be a great test. It’s good adversity to go through and something we gotta fight and fight against and, you know, prove that we can come out on top.”

Nazar also joked at the dour tone of reporters’ questions about Bedard: “He’s not dead. … I saw him this morning. He’s still alive.”