Chicago centre Connor Bedard will miss the start of the NHL season after he had surgery on his left shoulder on Wednesday.
Team physician Michael Terry said Bedard is expected “to make a full recovery in an approximate timeline of four months.”
The NHL hasn’t announced its regular-season schedule, but Chicago played its first game last season on Oct. 7.
Bedard, who turns 21 on July 17, got hurt while skating with a group of NHL players last week in near his hometown of North Vancouver, B.C.
It’s a major blow for a Chicago outfit trying to emerge from a painful rebuilding process.
Bedard set career highs with 30 goals and 75 points in 69 games in his third NHL season. He missed 12 games after he hurt his right shoulder on a draw during a 3-2 loss at St. Louis on Dec. 12.
“He’s so important to our team,” general manager Kyle Davidson said in April. “He took such a big step forward this year in every facet.”
Bedard suffers apparent shoulder injury in ‘freak accident’
Bedard is a restricted free agent, and it remains to be seen if the injury has any effect on the negotiations for his next contract. He missed nearly six weeks of his rookie season with a broken jaw.
Chicago went 29-39-14 last season, an 11-point improvement on the previous season and still nowhere near playoff contention. It has finished No. 31 in the NHL each of the past three years.
Defenceman Bowen Byram was acquired in a trade with Buffalo on June 23, and Chicago signed forward Cole Smith and defenseman Ian Cole on the first day of NHL free agency.
Bedard reached out to Byram, Smith and Cole after they were brought in by the team.
“Obviously a superb young talent,” Cole said Wednesday when asked about sharing the ice with Bedard. “Unfortunately, yeah, it sounds like it’s going to be a little later than originally anticipated, but you know he seems like a great guy.”
Chicago hasn’t made a post-season appearance since the NHL used an expanded playoff format after the 2020 season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bedard has been the centrepiece of the team since he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft. He made his anticipated NHL debut that October and won the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year. He had 23 goals and 67 points while appearing in all 82 games in his second season.
The Utah Mammoth said Wednesday they have matched New Jersey’s offer sheet to Barrett Hayton, signing the 26-year-old centre to a $4.775 million US contract for next season.
“Barrett is a key piece of our team and important to what we are building here in Utah,” general manager Bill Armstrong said. “He’s strong in the faceoff circle, plays both sides of the puck and can play with anyone in our forward group. We are grateful to be able to count on Barrett in our lineup next season.”
Utah would have received the Devils’ 2027 second-round pick as compensation if it did not match. It cost New Jersey nothing to take the risk on the restricted free agent, as Philadelphia did with its $90 million offer sheet to Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson on Friday.
The Mammoth can sign Hayton to an extension beginning Jan. 1 but cannot trade him before July 1, when he could hit the unrestricted free agent market at age 27.
“I’m fired up to get back with my teammates and remain in Utah,” Hayton said. “I’ve been with this core group for my whole career and it’s exciting that we have an opportunity to do some special things next season.”
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Hayton is coming off putting up 25 points in 67 regular-season games. The fifth overall pick in the 2018 draft when the team was in Arizona, he has 155 points in 362 games in the NHL, counting the playoffs.
Offer sheets have been few and far between in recent years, although St. Louis successfully poached forward Dylan Holloway and defenceman Philip Broberg from Edmonton in the summer of 2024 when the Oilers were hamstrung by the salary cap to match and keep two young players.
Fifteen restricted free agents this year have filed for arbitration, most prominently Dallas’ Jason Robertson, making them ineligible to sign an offer sheet.
Sunny Mehta, a first-time GM since taking over control of the Devils’ hockey operations department in April, was tight-lipped about offer-sheeting Hayton when asked about it last week.
“I know that the offer sheet thing, it’s a unique thing,” Mehta said on a video call with reporters. “It’s exciting. I get all that, but right now with it still being within that seven-day window, I can comment on any of it right now.”
