The Blackhawks spent the offseason adding some veteran pieces around Bedard so he could begin flourishing with the right influences around him. They added Taylor Hall, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 that's bounced around to several teams, along with more skill in Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi.

The Chicago Blackhawks youth score against a dominant Colorado Avalanche team in Wednesday night's 3-1 win. In addition, Connor Bedard now has 18 points in his last 15 games including an eight-game point streak.

For context, the Blackhawks won 26 games the season before drafting Bedard, then went on to win even fewer games (23) during his rookie season. They have 14 wins at the halfway point of the 2024-25 regular season, putting them on pace for a modest increase to 28.

Connor Bedard had a goal and an assist, and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1. Frank Nazar and Ilya Mikheyev also scored for Chicago, which had lost six of seven.

Let's pull the lens out from the current state of the Blackhawks and focus on what the calendar year could bring for the team.

Bedard tallied a goal and an assist in the Hawks' 3-1 victory Wednesday, extending his point streak to eight consecutive games. Petr Mrazek and Seth Jones stepped up, too.

There are detractors out there because he isn’t at the level of Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews despite being called a “generational talent” while playing major junior. Th