It could be a bit of a rough start to the year for the Chicago Blackhawks with the offseason news that Connor Bedard will miss the start of the year after re-injuring his shoulder. The Blackhawks' chances of breaking their playoff drought now rest on two rookies on their projected first line in Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov, who could one day be great players but will go through some growing pains initially.

The Blackhawks' big move to get closer to contention this offseason was trading for and signing Bowen Byram to a long-term contract extension. While Byram has never been given the keys to a team's blueline after playing behind Cale Makar and Rasmus Dahlin, there are still plenty skeptical about whether he has what it takes. 

Chicago hopes to reach the next level this season, but a lot of that hope rests on the injured shoulder of Bedard. They did a nostalgic signing of Patrick Kane to give the fans something to cheer for this season, but Showtime is reaching its closing act, and he will likely go out without fans asking for an encore. 

Hockey is a difficult sport to predict, so please gamble responsibly. Betting lines are from Fanduel Sportsbook and is subject to change.

The oddsmakers have the Blackhawks finishing with seven more points than the 2025-26 season. Chicago should conceivably get better as their young players develop, but they would've been right around this number if Bedard was healthy for the entire season. With his timeline unknown and looking like it could be somewhere near November, there's a chance he will miss the at least the first 20 games of the season. If the Blackhawks win half of those without Bedard they'd be lucky, which gives them alot of ground to make up in the remaining 64 games. 

Considering Chicago won just 29 of their 82 games last season in a year where Bedard missed only 13 games and was one of the best players in the league when healthy, I don't like their chances of hitting 80 points with their lineup as currently constructed.

The Blackhawks potentially still taking a step back is unfortunate, as the league is a better place when they are playoff contenders. However, it has the potential to go very poorly for Kyle Davidson if Byram is a bust after everything he gave up to sign him to that massive deal and Chicago still doesn't look any better than they did before. 

If you believe that I am a bit off base with my predictions and the Blackhawks might be better than I expect, it wouldn't hurt to explore Anton Frondell at +900 to win the Calder Trophy. He will play some big minutes in Bedard's absence. It's going to be hard for him to win it over Martone or Gavin McKenna, but stranger things have happened in the Calder race. 

Kantserov at +1600 is also interesting. The sniper scored 36 goals in the KHL last season, and if he can become a 30-goal scorer in his rookie season while the Blackhawks make a run toward the playoffs, it'd be hard not to give it to him. People are very high on the Russian forward, despite what they may think about Chicago's outlook.