With a draft lottery win, the Chicago Blackhawks took a big step toward advancing their franchise’s future with the opportunity to select top prospect Connor Bedard.
As their franchise transitions to its next generation, the Chicago Blackhawks will have a chance to draft a new generational player.
A win at Monday’s draft lottery moves the Blackhawks up two places in the order at the 2023 NHL Draft, which will be held June 28-29 in Nashville.
With that first overall pick, Chicago will be expected to select Connor Bedard, the 17-year-old phenom from the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League who has been the undisputed top prospect across scouts’ 2023 draft boards for at least the last two years.
For the Blackhawks, the timing couldn’t be better. The opportunity to draft Bedard comes right as they’ve come to the end of the road with the leaders of their last generation of stars. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will both become unrestricted free agents this summer after playing out matching eight-year contracts.
Kane was selected first overall in the Blackhawks’ only other draft-lottery win for first overall in 2007, after Toews was selected with the third pick in 2006. Together, the pair formed the nucleus of a roster that won three Stanley Cups in six years, in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
In 2021, the Blackhawks organization was rocked by scandal, when it was revealed that the organization had acted inappropriately in 2010 when faced with sexual misconduct allegations toward the team’s video coach, Bradley Aldrich, by 2008 11th-overall pick Kyle Beach.
In the wake of an independent investigation in 2021, general manager Stan Bowman and other executives left the team, and former head coach Joel Quenneville also left his position with the Florida Panthers as a result of his role with the Blackhawks at the time of the incident.
