On Wednesday, the Chicago Blackhawks announced that star centre Connor Bedard underwent successful shoulder surgery and is expected to make a full recovery in approximately four months.

The timeline provided by the Hawks projects Bedard to make his season debut around mid-November.

X (formerly known as Twitter) user @BlackhawksFocus posted a video of the incident that led to Bedard’s injury. Bedard was training with other Vancouver-born NHLers Macklin Celebrini, Fraser Minten, and others, out at Scotia Barn — more commonly known as 8 Rinks — in Burnaby. The video, which was posted on July 2nd, shows Bedard going awkwardly into the boards, after which he skated off clutching his shoulder in obvious discomfort.

Bedard, 20, produced at over a point-per-game clip for the first time in his NHL career this past season with Chicago. Through 69 games, Bedard tallied 30 goals and 45 assists for a total of 75 points. Bedard put those numbers up on a Blackhawks team that was once again abysmal in 2025-26. After Bedard, Chicago’s top scorers were Tyler Bertuzzi (58 points in 79 games), Frank Nazar (41 points in 66 games), and Ilya Mikheyev (36 points in 77 games).

The Blackhawks selected Bedard first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. Through his first two NHL seasons, Bedard struggled to produce offensively (relative to expectations, of course). This past season, though, he dragged the Blackhawks into the fight on a nightly basis before going down with an injury to his right shoulder that forced him to miss 12 games. Bedard suffered that injury during a late-game faceoff against Brayden Schenn of the St. Louis Blues. In his absence, the Blackhawks posted a 2-9-1 record. Prior to his injury, the Blackhawks were above .500 with a 13-12-6 record.

Now they’ll at minimum begin the 2026-27 season without their number one centre.

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