TAMPA, Fla. — Connor Bedard isn’t exactly scouring the Internet for clips of his future teammates. He’s not sifting through NCAA hockey stats and monitoring the Ontario Hockey League leaders or catching grainy streams of Western Hockey League games.
OK, he probably is doing that last one. The kid loves the Dub.
But Bedard is very much focused on the present, not the future. That said, he can’t help but notice that future feels a little bit closer seemingly every day. He’s got 19-year-old Frank Nazar on his wing. Kevin Korchinski, 20, made an impact in his brief stint in Chicago. There are four defensemen 23 and younger in the rotation. Colton Dach, 22, has been a solid recent addition. And on Tuesday, 22-year-old Landon Slaggert rejoined the party.
On opening night, the Blackhawks’ average age was 29.4, fifth-oldest in the league. It’s now 26.5. It’s starting to look —and feel — like a rebuild.
“It’s more guys around my age, you notice that for sure,” Bedard said. “It’s fun. Everyone that comes up is so excited to be in the NHL every day, and that brings a lot of positivity to our room.”
The youngsters have brought more than good vibes. They’ve brought some good hockey, too. Nazar had five points in the previous four games. Dach scored his first goal on Friday. And Slaggert stepped right into the lineup and fired a wrist shot past Jonas Johansson in the second period of the Blackhawks’ 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. The Blackhawks have a point in five of their last six games, and while 2-1-3 might not be the most impressive stretch, it’s certainly their best fortnight of the season.
Not to be outdone, the 19-year-old Bedard had one of the most spectacular goals of his young career, somehow picking a tiny corner between Johansson’s head and the near post from the bottom of the right circle, outside the dots, for his 14th goal of the season.
Bedard had been trying shots from similar angles all season.
“It’s not the easiest shot to score on, but I just saw a little room and eventually it’s going to hopefully go in,” he said. “It felt good when it left my stick, but you don’t know ’til it’s in.”
CONNOR BEDARD. HOW ?!!?!?!?!?!!? pic.twitter.com/KybpzBsyHE
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 29, 2025
Any goal lifts a team. But goals like that send a particularly strong charge through a lineup.
“It’s special, right?” Sorensen said. “You can feel the energy on the bench, for sure.”
(There must be something about Florida, because Bedard had a four-point night at Amalie Arena last season and followed it up with an unforgettable goal against the Panthers, when he picked Kevin Stenlund’s pocket and then picked a corner from a similarly ridiculous angle.)
It was one of those rare all-around good nights for the Blackhawks, the kind you have to hold onto during another difficult season in a difficult rebuild. The midseason youth movement sure helps. Bedard usually resists looking at the big picture as much as possible — there’s enough to worry about in the present, after all.
But he can’t help but start dreaming big every now and then.
“You’re happy to see young guys come up,” Bedard said. “It’s hard to look too much into the future with everything going on, you just take things day by day. But you see the potential of these guys and just how they’re able to make an impact right now — imagine what they’ll be able to do in four or five years.”
Slaggert, a third-round pick in 2020, turned himself into a viable NHL prospect at Notre Dame and Rockford with his nose for the net and scrappy defensive play. He projects as a bottom-six energy guy, but scored 20 goals in 36 games as a senior with the Fighting Irish, and has 10 goals and 15 assists in 39 games with the IceHogs this season. His father, Andy Slaggert, has been coaching at Notre Dame for more than three decades, and drilled a question into his son’s head: Where do the goals hide?
“And the answer is they don’t, they’re around the blue paint,” Slaggert said. “You’ve just got to get there and get to the net.”
But his goal on Tuesday — the second of his career after playing in 16 games last season — was a little flashier, a one-timer from the top of the left circle off a Lukas Reichel leave. Slaggert brought energy and speed throughout the game, not just the goal.
“A rare one a little far away,” Slaggert said with a broad smile.
Oh, and Reichel — just 22 himself — has quietly become a consistent generator for the Blackhawks.
Just another pixel in that big picture that’s slowly coming into focus.
“We’ve got a good group, whoever’s around, you’re enjoying it,” Bedard said. “But it’s obviously cool to see young guys coming up and having success. And it’s obviously nice to have guys around your age that maybe you relate to a little bit more. It’s fun to see.”
Early in the third period, Arvid Söderblom made a sprawling leg save on a Nick Paul break to the net. It wasn’t quite a full scorpion save, but it was definitely in the same genus. Much later in the period, with Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson pulled for an extra attacker, Söderblom made another spectacular stop, coming all the way across the crease to stop a backdoor chance by Paul with his mask.
Both were highlight-reel stuff. But Söderblom had no problem picking his favorite of the two.
“I like (the first one) because we were up 2-1, and the last one we were up 3-1,” he said.
Söderblom was the primary reason the Blackhawks were up at all. He made 34 saves — stopping all 26 shots he saw in the last two periods, including 15 in the third — to take the victory. Per Evolving Hockey, Söderblom saved 2.74 goals above expected in the game.
The 25-year-old Swede’s gradual takeover of the No. 1 role from Petr Mrázek has kicked into another gear lately. It’s his fourth straight game with at least 30 saves, and his sixth in the last seven. Since New Year’s, he’s posted a .915 save percentage — no small feat behind a team that gives up the sixth-most high-danger chances per 60 minutes in the league. For a guy who looked like he might not be cut out for the NHL last season — with five wins and a .880 save percentage in 32 appearances — and who was supposed to be replaced by the injured Laurent Brossoit this year, it’s been quite a turnaround.
“It feels good, I feel confident,” he said. “I feel calm, and that’s when you play your best, I think. When you just go out there, having fun, and not really (thinking) too much. Just go out there and play the game and do your best. Yeah, it feels good right now.”
Tuesday’s win over the Lightning was Arvid Söderblom’s fourth straight game with over 30 saves. (Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
It was objectively funny when Nick Foligno dramatically flopped to the ice in Sunday’s game against Minnesota, protesting a holding call by mocking how easily Kirill Kaprizov went down. It was also objectively costly, as he got an extra penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Wild scored on the second penalty, and it proved to be the game-winner.
Anders Sorensen didn’t need to go have a talk with Foligno about it. Foligno came to him.
“He knows,” Sorensen said. “We talked. We’re good.”
Against the Lightning, Foligno took an extra penalty when he initiated a fight with Zemgus Girgensons in the first period. Shortly after that, Pat Maroon took two penalties — one for boarding, one for trying to goad two different Tampa Bay players into fights. It was two veterans trying to lead, but instead putting their team in a hole. Fortunately for the Blackhawks, Tampa Bay didn’t score during any of the six minutes of nearly consecutive power-play time.
On the flip side, Tyler Bertuzzi rushed to Bedard’s defense when Lightning pest Mikey Eyssimont drilled him in the back after a whistle in the third period. The whistle was for a tripping call on Bedard, and Bertuzzi’s response actually drew a double-minor from Eyssimont and essentially nullified Bedard’s penalty.
“You’ve got to stand up for each other, too, right?” Sorensen said. “That’s a big part of it.”
It feels like he’s been in the league for quite some time now, but Brandon Hagel is only 26 years old. That’s just one year older than Philipp Kurashev, three years older than Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier. Hagel fit Kyle Davidson’s timeline. And Hagel fit Davidson’s “relentless” archetype. But Hagel didn’t fit the tank, and two first-round picks were too good to pass up.
Maybe Oliver Moore and Sacha Boisvert will someday make it easy for Blackhawks fans to stop thinking about Hagel, but Hagel hasn’t stopped thinking about the Blackhawks. He wonders what might have been had they kept their young core together.
“Of course,” he said. “It just pops up sometimes. You go down the list when I was there and look how all the players are succeeding now on other teams — (Alex) DeBrincat, myself, (Dylan) Strome, (Patrick) Kane.”
Then he laughed.
“I think you’d still be in a rebuild right now, but maybe it’d be trending a different way,” he said.
Hagel marveled at how he barely knows anybody on the Blackhawks roster these days. He still keeps in touch with many of his ex-Blackhawks teammates, but they’re all scattered around the league.
“You see what they’re doing, and you hear it and you talk about it,” he said. “But I’m just so grateful to be in Tampa. I love this organization — it’s a winning culture, I’m in the sun, I have the best coaches in the world, the best goalies and players, and it was a perfect fit. With that being said, I did love Chicago. I’ll never take Chicago for granted. That city will always have a place in my heart because that’s where I started, and that’s who gave me the opportunity.”
(Top photo of Connor Bedard: Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
