CHICAGO — A five-city, nine-night road trip spanning two calendar years will leave any player physically and emotionally drained. But the Blackhawks’ flight home from Newark on Friday night was particularly quiet, particularly somber.
Not only did the Blackhawks lose all five games on the trip, they lost five key forwards to injury — the latest the cruelest blow of them all. Rookie sensation Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft and far and away the Blackhawks’ best player, suffered a fractured jaw when Brendan Smith stepped into him as he crossed the blue line on a power-play rush during Friday’s game in New Jersey.
Bedard was getting examined by team doctors on Saturday and is out indefinitely, as the Blackhawks placed him on injured reserve.
“It’s awful,” center Jason Dickinson said. “I feel so bad for him. He’s having such a good year and he’s such a good. He loves the game so much.”
The Blackhawks did not provide a timeline for Bedard’s return, but Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner had the same injury on Dec. 9 and just returned to practice on Saturday wearing a full face shield. Jenner was expected to miss six weeks. Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said he had his jaw “broken right in half” when he took a slap shot to the face during his playing days. He had his jaw wired shut and had metal plates and 15 screws inserted into his skull. He was back in action in 5 1/2 weeks.
A similar timetable for Bedard would mean he’ll miss the All-Star Game on Feb. 3 in Toronto. Bedard was the youngest player in NHL history to be named an All-Star. Instead, Dickinson, who already has a career-high 13 goals, is the likeliest replacement. Richardson expected Bedard would still go to Toronto to be part of the festivities.
Richardson said it was safe to assume that Bedard will have some form of jaw wiring, though the process is not as severe and restrictive as it was back in Richardson’s day.
Bedard certainly will be playing in a full face shield when he does return.
“It’s horrible,” forward Ryan Donato said. “He’s a kid that loves being around the rink, being around the game. Taking that away from him I’m sure is a big blow to him and to us. It’s definitely hard to wrap our heads around. It’s so fresh still for us to realize what’s going on, but we hope the best for him and, hopefully, we can keep the guys positive.”
Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft and one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory, has been everything the Blackhawks hoped he’d be, with 15 goals and 18 assists in 39 games with many of those goals of the spectacular variety, including his lacrosse-style goal in St. Louis on Dec. 23. He’s also immediately become the face of the franchise, bringing sellout crowds — full of No. 98 jerseys — back to the United Center. In a season full of frustration and misery, Bedard has given the Blackhawks and their fans something to cling to.
Without him, things look especially bleak.
Bedard now joins an almost absurd list of injured Blackhawks. Of their optimal lineup, eight of their top 12 forwards and their No. 1 defenseman, Seth Jones, are currently injured. Among the injured are Taylor Hall (out for the season after knee surgery), Tyler Johnson (foot), Andreas Athanasiou (groin), Anthony Beauvillier (wrist), Taylor Raddysh (groin), Joey Anderson (shoulder) and Nick Foligno, who broke his finger in Friday’s game — during a retaliatory fight with the Devils’ Smith.
The cap hit of the Blackhawks on injured reserve is more than $35 million. The cap hit of those left on the active roster is a little more than $32 million. That doesn’t even count Corey Perry, who was kicked off the team in November for what the team described as a workplace incident.
“A couple of us are just sitting there (on the flight home) talking about everything,” Dickinson said. “We laughed, like, what else is there to do? Like it’s just comical at this point that bodies just keep dropping for us and we can’t catch a break. So like, what else do you do, but laugh at it? This is just unbelievable, right?”
Desperate for forward depth, the Blackhawks sent a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick to Pittsburgh for Rem Pitlick, who has eight goals and 16 assists in 32 games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this season. Pitlick is expected to play Sunday. With so many forwards out, the Blackhawks might have to dress seven defensemen, though they did claim forward Zach Sanford off waivers from Arizona, so he could fill out the roster. Sanford has 49 goals in 316 career games with six teams.
On the bright side, Jones, Raddysh and Anderson all skated after Saturday’s practice. When the Blackhawks entered the locker room at Fifth Third Arena and saw those three putting on their skates, it was an immediate lift for a team in desperate need of some good news.
“Everybody, as soon as we saw them walk in the room, it was like, ‘How you doing, how you feeling, how close do you think you are, can you push it a little?’” Dickinson said with a chuckle.
As for how he’s dealing with the rash of injuries personally, Richardson said, “Exercise and wine. I’m not lying.”
Required reading
(Photo: Rich Graessle / NHLI via Getty Images)
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