Blackhawks center Connor Bedard wins Calder Trophy as NHL’s top rookie

No rookie had more goals. No rookie had more assists. No rookie had more points.

And no rookie had more hype, pressure, expectations or attention. As a result, no rookie got more Calder Trophy votes than Connor Bedard. He became the ninth Chicago Blackhawks player to win the Calder as the league’s top rookie Thursday night.

And while hockey fans and pundits alike enjoyed a season-long debate between the 18-year-old Bedard, the top pick in the 2023 draft, and 21-year-old Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber, the teen wunderkind was a runaway winner with 152 first-place votes to Faber’s 42. In all, Bedard had 1,808 points to Faber’s 1,464.

As much as fans wanted to make it a Bedard versus Faber narrative — pitting Bedard’s offensive prowess and highlight-reel goals against Faber’s defensive stoutness and impressive ice time — neither player fed into it. There’s a lot of mutual respect between them.

“He’s a hell of a player,” Bedard said of Faber late in the season. “Even when we played against him – I think I only played them once this year, but I really noticed him. How much he means to that team, he plays a lot of minutes, I think he’s running their first unit and as well as defensively. He’s just so solid. He’s a great player. It’s been a lot of fun to watch him and other rookies, of course. Yeah, but he’s a special player, for sure.”

“He’s an incredible player in this league, already, at 18 years old,” Faber said in April. “Obviously, they’re struggling in Chicago and he’s still finding a way to put up points and make a difference. As an 18-year-old kid, that’s crazy. That’s me three years ago. … He’s a superstar in this league already, and he’s going to be for a long time. The way he carries himself and what he has to go through with all the media — he’s definitely lived up to the hype. It’s cool to see. You’ve got to tip your cap to a guy like that.”

Perhaps no player in league history entered the NHL with more fanfare than Bedard, as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin came up before the social-media age and Connor McDavid was largely ignored by American television as he was picked by the Edmonton Oilers.

Bedard lived up to the hype, finishing the season with 22 goals and 39 assists in 68 games, missing 14 games with a broken jaw.

His minus-44 rating was one off being the worst in the league ahead of the San Jose Sharks’ William Eklund, but the Blackhawks didn’t exactly surround him with high-end talent and gave him some of the toughest minutes for a forward in the league.

The last Chicago player to win the Calder was Artemi Panarin in 2016. Prior to that, Patrick Kane won in 2008, Ed Belfour in 1991 Steve Larmer in 1983, Tony Esposito in 1970, Bill Hay in 1960, Ed Litzenberger in 1955, Cully Dahlstrom in 1938 and Mike Karakas in 1936.

When Panarin won the Calder, there was great interest in whether he would hit his bonuses because of what it meant for the Blackhawks’ salary cap. Panarin had Chicago paying major cap overages in 2016 and 2017. It was nearly $4 million after one season.

That won’t be the case for the Blackhawks with Bedard. While Bedard has triggered performance bonuses, Chicago has plenty of cap space to cover it this season. According to Puckpedia, Bedard hit a maximum of four “A” level bonuses, which equate to a total of $1 million.

He didn’t reach any “B” level bonuses, though, and those pay $2.5 million. Plenty of other awards fall under the “B” bonuses, but not actually the Calder Trophy.

Required reading

(Photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)