Blackhawks select Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft

The Connor Bedard era has begun in Chicago.

After months of hypothesis, the Blackhawks chosen Canadian middle Connor Bedard of the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League with the highest choose of the NHL Draft.

Bedard had lengthy been the highest prospect of this yr’s draft class.

He was honored because the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation’s male participant of the yr after representatives from 22 international locations determined he was the highest younger prospect on the earth.

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The Blackhawks hadn’t picked first general since 2007, after they chosen future Corridor of Famer Patrick Kane, who performed 16 years in Chicago and gained three Stanley Cups.

“We’ll let him determine that out,” GM Kyle Davidson instructed ESPN after making the choose official. “He is a really particular participant, very particular particular person. We’ll let him decide how particular the primary season is.”

BLACKHAWKS ADD TAYLOR HALL IN TRADE WITH BRUINS TO UPGRADE FORWARDS AROUND EXPECTED NO. 1 PICK CONNOR BEDARD

Bedard, simply 17 years outdated, has been turning heads after recording 143 factors in 57 regular-season video games within the CHL with the Pats in the course of the 2022-23 season. Bedard led the league in factors, ending first in targets and tied for first in assists on his solution to being named the WHL participant of the yr and the CHL’s participant of the yr, high prospect and high scorer, the primary participant to take action.

Bedard has additionally been a key member of Group Canada, serving to his nation win gold within the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship. He led the event with 9 targets and 14 assists.

High prospect Connor Bedard speaks to the media previous to Recreation 2 of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Remaining between the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Cell Enviornment June 5, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Photographs)

He might stand at simply 5-foot-9, 185 kilos, however three seasons within the WHL produced 134 targets and 137 assists for 271 factors.

Bedard is anticipated to fit proper into the Blackhawks’ depth chart, which is beginning to enhance after Davidson made a transfer with the Boston Bruins to amass Taylor Corridor as a stop-gap winger to assist improve the forwards round Bedard.

The expectations are excessive, however Bedard has proven a capability to rise to the event even at such a younger age. The NHL shall be his stiffest competitors thus far, and he’ll probably get his first style of the league when he faces the Pittsburgh Penguins and his idol, Sidney Crosby, Oct. 10 within the opening recreation of the 2023-24 NHL season.

Ahead Connor Bedard (98) of the Regina Pats skates for Group Pink in the course of the 2023 Kubota CHL High Prospects Recreation observe on the Langley Occasions Centre Jan. 25, 2023, in Langley, British Columbia. (Dennis Pajot/Getty Photographs)

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With Bedard formally in a Blackhawks sweater, Chicago can concentrate on its subsequent picks within the draft, which embrace the nineteenth general choice within the first spherical.