Things have not gone well for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2024-25. The Blackhawks added talent around Connor Bedard in NHL Free Agency over the summer. However, the influx of new players did nothing to improve the team’s fortunes. Bedard has struggled at times during the season, and the Blackhawks even fired their head coach due to poor performances.
The Blackhawks remain in quite a rut. Chicago has lost nine of their last 12 games and is on a six-game losing streak. However, Bedard believes there is progress being made by this group. And he wants to play a bit more freely as the 2024-25 regular season enters its final stretch of games.
“I know what I’m trying to do right now is not be so focused on results and just know we’re young, we’re trying to get better and just have fun. It’s a great group of guys and we have, what, three weeks left? So just have fun, enjoy it and do the best you can. Obviously you’re trying to win every game, and you want to win, but we’re going to try to play the best we can,” the Blackhawks star said, via NHL.com’s Tracey Myers.
Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard reflects on 2024-25 season
As mentioned, things have not gone to plan for the Blackhawks this season. They wanted to be more competitive and allow Bedard more opportunities to impact the game. Unfortunately, even Bedard has struggled to get anything going for extended stretches of the season. But the Chicago star believes these struggles have shown him things he can improve on.
“Up to this point I feel I’ve had a couple little, like, 12-15 game stretches where if you look at points … obviously points aren’t everything, but as a guy who’s supposed to produce, those stretches are what I need to get rid of,” he said, via Myers. “The rest of the year’s been pretty good, I feel like. I have a lot of areas I can improve but that’s exciting in a way, too, where you can be a lot better.”
The Blackhawks are in a good position to make significant moves this summer. At this time, they are projected to have a little less than $32 million in salary cap space for NHL Free Agency, according to PuckPedia. And outside of goalie Arvid Soderblom, the team is not expected to give out a notable contract in restricted free agency.
This could certainly allow the Blackhawks to make a splash on the open market. If they can give Bedard a star winger, perhaps, the team could find itself on an upward trajectory sooner rather than later. In any event, the Blackhawks are a team fans should keep an eye on once the focus shifts to offseason roster maneuvering.
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