Chicago Blackhawks

When a player is hailed as "the next one" the way Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard has been since he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2023, the hype and pressure that go with it are a lot to handle.

Now that the 19-year-old is in his second NHL season and his team is set to host the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, a player hailed as a generational talent seems poised to shine on one of the biggest stages of his young career amid all of that hype and pressure.

Bedard is Chicago's leading point scorer this season with 32, and he's just behind Tyler Bertuzzi and Ryan Donato for the team lead in goals. A year ago, he was the Blackhawks' top scorer and tied with Jason Dickinson for most goals despite missing 14 games with a broken jaw.

Enjoying the Moment

It's a tough spot to be in on a team deep in the throes of a rebuild, especially when he's expected to drag Chicago back to the playoffs the way Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby did for the Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins, respectively, so soon after entering the league.

With Chicago buried at the bottom of the Central Division holding the fewest points in the league and the lowest points percentage, it's safe to say everything is not going according to plan. Still, the NHL's annual outdoor extravaganza allows a moment to soak in the biggest game of his pro career.

"You have to do your best to enjoy it," Blackhawks forward Taylor Hall said. "It just means you're playing on a marquee franchise, and they want to put you on the main stage, and I think you should enjoy that."

The Winter Classic has provided a big stage for the likes of Crosby, Patrick Kane and Alex Ovechkin to showcase their abilities to the world. Bedard getting a chance at such an early stage sets up a career-building block moment for the, ideally, bigger games and moments to come.

For him, it's more about the team than anything else.

"We're lucky to get to play in one of these," Bedard said. "Obviously at home at Wrigley, it's going to be pretty special. I'm just excited to get to see what it's like, see the atmosphere, and just kind of enjoy it."

Winter Classics can be a bit overwhelming with the setting and the size of the crowd, and this taste of the event will be important for Bedard because it's surely not the last one he'll get to be a part of.

"It's kind of a chaotic time, but it's a lot of fun," Buffalo Sabres forward Jason Zucker said. "My first one was at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (2016 Stadium Series) and the second one was at Fenway Park (2023 Winter Classic). You play at Fenway with the Green Monster behind you and it was pretty impressive. It was a heck of a lot of fun."

The difficulty of the season weighs on the players, especially one filled with turmoil for Chicago. Bedard has already been through a coach firing, seeing Luke Richardson fired this month.

Mentoring a Superstar

But if there's an upside to all this, it's that Bedard doesn't have to shoulder the weight of expectations without some guidance from someone who knows about it all too well in Hall.

The 33-year-old was the first player picked in the 2010 draft by the Oilers, and before the team had McDavid, Hall was the original guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders to get a once glorious franchise back on track.

If there's anyone Bedard can lean on for experience navigating these rough waters, he only has to look to his left wing to find it.

"I do enjoy the mentorship," Hall said. "I didn't get to be around Connor as much last year just being out, but this year we're starting to play on a line a bit more, so it's been fun. There's not a lot of people in the world that kind of know what you're going through and what comes with being a first overall pick and having a lot of hype, and in this day and age, it's all magnified with social media and TVs in your pocket all the time.

"But I do understand the pressure, and I do understand what it's like to go to a big market and have to perform."

Hall's NHL career has been truly incredible. He's gone from Edmonton to New Jersey—where he won MVP in 2018—to Arizona, Buffalo, Boston and now Chicago. Although Hall's teams have struggled to get to the playoffs, it helps serve as a lesson that getting to the top isn't easy, nor is it guaranteed, which makes it important to enjoy the big moments, like the Winter Classic, when they happen.

That said, Hall understands that things for Bedard are so much different now than they were for him.

"I think he's handled it great and I've really seen him just embrace it a little bit more this year rather than shy away from it last year," Hall said. "It's cool to be the face of a team and the face of a huge franchise like the Chicago Blackhawks.

"He's earned this, this is what he's worked for his whole life. He's starting to enjoy it and I've seen a lot more smiles, especially in the last couple of weeks. Development as an 18- or 19-year-old is never just a flat line. It's ups and downs and figuring out different things on the ice and off the ice."

NHL on TNT is kicking off the 2025 NHL Winter Classic between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks by hosting a New Year's Eve fan celebration in Chicago.

The "Barnburner" experience will take place at Gallagher Way outside of Wrigley Field from noon to 7:30 CT on Dec. 31, according to TNT Sports.

Puck drop for the Winter Classic is set for 4 p.m. CT at Wrigley Field.

The fan event will feature a performance from Jon Pardi as well as a live NHL on TNT broadcast featuring hosts Wayne Gretzky, Paul Bissonnette, Anson Carter and Liam McHugh.

The entertainment will continue at the game, which will feature a pregame performance from The Smashing Pumpkins and an appearance by Chance The Rapper during the first period break.

The event will mark the second time the NHL has held an outdoor game at Wrigley Field, and the first time any Winter Classic has been played on New Year's Eve.

The contest also represents the outdoor debut of 2023 No. 1 draft pick and reigning Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard.

Bedard and the Blackhawks will take on St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn and goaltender Jordan Binnington as the Blues come to Chicago for the first time this season.

The Blues won the 2023-24 season series against the Blackhawks 3-1, and the visitors also enter the matchup with a perfect outdoor record.

St. Louis has previously claimed Winter Classic victories in both 2017 against the Blackhawks and 2022 against the Minnesota Wild.

The Blackhawks are meanwhile set to become the first team in NHL history to play in seven outdoor games. Chicago is 1-5 in six previous contests, with the team's lone outdoor victory coming against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014.

The Blackhawks-Blues rivalry has waned as both teams dropped out of playoff contention over the last few seasons. The NHL will hope the addition of Bedard and the national stage can help reinvigorate this divisional rivalry.

The Chicago Blackhawks fired head coach Luke Richardson, the team announced on Thursday.

Richardson's third season with the team was off to a poor start, as Chicago's 8-16-2 record represents the worst mark in the NHL. The Blackhawks are also currently in the midst of a four-game losing streak and have lost eight of their past 10 contests.

Richardson finished his career in Chicago with a 57-118-15 overall record.

Anders Sorensen will take over as interim head coach, according to Mark Lazerus of The Athletic.

Sorensen previously served as the head coach of the Rockford IceHogs, Chicago's AHL affiliate.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson thanked Richardson for his time with the team as part of the announcement.

"Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach," Davidson said. "We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community. As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward."

Since Richardson took over ahead of the 2022-23 season, the Blackhawks finished with the worst record in the Central Division in each of his first two years with the team before the dismal start to their 2024-25 campaign.

Chicago averaged just 2.42 goals for per game in 26 contests prior to the coaching change, the second-worst mark in the NHL.

The play of Connor Bedard has also been a cause for concern, as the reigning Calder Trophy winner is off to a slow start compared to his stellar rookie year. After recording 61 points in 68 games last season, Bedard has registered 19 points in 26 appearances to begin his second year.

With a league-worst record combined with the struggles of the team's 19-year-old star, the Blackhawks made the decision to move on from Richardson.

Being left off the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off roster doesn't mean Chicago Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard is out of the running to represent Team Canada during the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Team Canada general manager Don Sweeney called Bedard part of the "next wave of future great players" on Thursday when discussing the decision not to invite him to the tournament.

"When we went through the process as a management group of building the best team to compete in February, with certainly an eye towards what the next wave of future great players is going to look like... Connor certainly falls in that category," Sweeney said, per NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger. "We know the special qualities he has."

Sweeney told reporters that Team Canada had "built out a database" with players who weren't ready for 4 Nations but could potentially play in the Olympics, per the Daily Faceoff's Matt Larkin.

"We're going to have to continue to have those stack up on top of each other year, the next year and a half, and make really hard decisions," Sweeney said.

Bedard, the reigning Calder Trophy winner, is off to a relatively slow start to his sophomore NHL season with 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) in 26 games.

"You kind of sleep in the bed you make, and I obviously haven't been too happy with the start of the year," Bedard told TNT on Wednesday about not being named to Canada's 4 Nations roster.

Bedard added, "You can try to use something like that for a little motivation. Just keep going, keep working hard, keep trying to get better, and that's what I'm going to do, for sure."

Sweeney will serve as assistant general manager to Doug Armstrong during the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics.

He noted in a Wednesday appearance on Sportsnet that the ultimate decisions regarding the 2026 roster would be left up to Armstrong.

"We just felt that we weren't going to push aside anybody that deserved, and had earned, an opportunity to play in this event now," Sweeney said. "We were tasked to put together the best team we could put together now, for this event, with an eye towards tracking, in specific, several of the players and other guys that were so close to making this team."

Sweeney added that there is still a chance, should there be injuries to any members of the 4 Nations roster over the next several months, Team Canada could call up one of the players on the fringe of the roster.

Bedard, who led all rookies with 22 goals and 61 points last season despite missing 14 games with a broken jaw, may need to increase his production with Chicago in order to get that call. He has been held to two goals in his last 17 games for the struggling Blackhawks, who headed into Thursday with an NHL-worst 8-16-2 record.