The Blackhawks Built for Bedard's Return. Now They Have to Survive Without Him.

The offseason Chicago just ran was designed around a player who won't be on the ice when it opens. Connor Bedard went under the knife on July 8 for left shoulder surgery, and his expected absence from the start of 2026–27 is the central fact around which every other roster decision must be evaluated. The five-year, $75 million extension he signed ten days later confirmed that the franchise is building toward him, not around his absence — but that distinction matters less when the puck drops in October and he isn't there.

Here is what we know about what Chicago is trying to survive. Last season ended in genuine catastrophe: the Blackhawks allowed 4.2 goals per game over their final ten games, a sharp deterioration from an already-ugly 3.5 over the preceding stretch. That's not a slump — that's a structural failure. And the blue line was at the center of it. Artyom Levshunov, the young defenseman who was logging nearly 20 minutes a night and posted 22 points in 48 games, is on injured reserve. Ryan Ellis is on injured reserve. A third defenseman saw his ice time crater by more than a quarter over those same final ten games, a quiet signal that the coaching staff was running out of answers. The Byram acquisition — and his six-year, $75 million extension — is the direct answer to all of that. He is the piece the back end was missing. The question is whether he can anchor a defense that is, right now, short multiple bodies.

The narrow path to a functional early season runs through three specific things. First, Bowen Byram has to play like a genuine top-pairing defenseman from night one — not a promising piece, not a future cornerstone, but someone who controls games in real time. Second, Patrick Kane has to do what veterans brought back to young teams are actually supposed to do: not just score, but compress the chaos that comes with a depleted roster and an absent franchise center. Kane scored 48 points in 38 games last season — he is not here as a ceremonial presence, and at $8 million a year, the front office is paying for production. Third, Tyler Bertuzzi, Frank Nazar, and Teuvo Teravainen have to hold the offensive line together long enough that the team isn't in freefall by the time Bedard returns. Bertuzzi led the forwards last season with 40 points. That has to be a floor, not a ceiling.

What breaks the path is straightforward to name even if it's uncomfortable to say out loud. If Levshunov's injury lingers and the defense is forced to lean on depth pieces who were already struggling in April, the 4.2 goals-against number won't look like an aberration — it'll look like a preview. If Kane, now well into his thirties, shows the wear that slowed him in Detroit rather than the version that lit up the league in his prime, the offensive bridge collapses before Bedard can cross it. And if Bedard's shoulder requires more time than currently projected, the window for the season to mean anything meaningful shrinks to almost nothing.

My read is that this front office made the right calls this summer. Trading the fourth overall pick for Byram was aggressive and correct — a high-end defensive prospect is worth less than a high-end defenseman who is already here. Signing Kane was a genuine swing, not a nostalgia play, and Roman Kantserov's arrival adds a forward who is already thinking about how his game fits with Bedard and Kane when they're all healthy. The bones of something real are here. But the Blackhawks are asking a roster with significant injury attrition, no Bedard to start, and a defense that fell apart in April to hold together through what could be a brutal stretch of early games. The offseason was built for the long game. The short game is the part that's actually hard.