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Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Connor Bedard: Calder Finalist

Originally posted on Inside The Rink | By Genevive Oliver | Last updated 4/30/24

The NHL announced on Tuesday, April 30th the three Calder Trophy Finalists – Connor Bedard, Brock Faber, and Luke Hughes. The three finalists each put on a show this season, overall having a spectacular rookie year. The annual Awards ceremony will take place in Las Vegas on June 27th.

Connor Bedard put on a stellar performance during his rookie season for the Chicago Blackhawks. Even though he had missed 14 games with a broken jaw from January to the beginning of February, he led the team in goals, tied at 22, assists (39), and points (61). With his 22-goal and 61-point totals, he led all rookies and led all rookie forwards with a 19:47 average ice time by a full 90 seconds (18:07).

Bedard has been named a finalist for the 2023-24 Calder Trophy and awarded to the league’s top rookie this season. He is also the odds-on favorite to take this year’s Calder home.

Making his NHL debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 11th at 18 years old, Bedard had become the 45th youngest player to skate in an NHL game, as well as the fifth-youngest in Chicago history – being the youngest in close to 40 years, dating back to Eddie Olczyk’s 1984-85 debut (18 years, 56 days old). In a comeback victory, he recorded an assist and had been marked as the youngest player to record a point in his NHL debut since both Aleksander Barkov (18 years, 31 days) and Nathan MacKinnon (18 years, 31 days) did on consecutive days in 2013. In early January, Connor was named the youngest player in NHL history to be in an NHL All-Star game (18 years, 171 days).

However, due to his broken jaw shortly after this exciting announcement to be an NHL All-Star, he was unable to participate in the game. He took part in the Skills Competition with Sidney Crosby as passers.

During the 14-game span without Bedard, the Blackhawks record was 3-10-1 (.250 point percentage) compared to the 20-43-5 record (.330 point percentage) in the other 68 games he had been in the lineup.

Connor Bedard had also finished his rookie year among rookies with shots on goal (1st – 206), takeaways (1st – 47), power-play assists (2nd – 17), power-play points (2nd – 21), power-play goals (tied, 2nd – 4), game-winning goals (tied, 4th – 2), and total time on ice (6th – 1,345;16).

The most outstanding thing to come out of Bedard’s rookie year, though, is the impact he made on the Blackhawks.

He posted 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists) in 36 games through December 31st. Connor tied for 34th in NHL scoring in that time. Bedard also scored a goal or recorded an assist on just about 38% of Chicago’s goals and scored over 17% of the Blackhawks’ goals himself.

Overall, his impact on the team had stayed pretty much at the same rate. He registered a point on 38.61% of the team’s 158 goals in the games he played and his 22 accounted for 13.92% of those goals.

Bedard is seeking to be marked as the 10th Chicago Blackhawk to win the Calder Trophy, as well as the first since Artemi Panarin in the 2015-16 season.