Connor Bedard Gets Emotional Talking About Traded Teammates

So far, the Chicago Blackhawks have traded Colton Dach, Jason Dickinson, and Connor Murphy. They all happen to be Edmonton Oilers now, but the important thing to Connor Bedard is that they are no longer members of the Blackhawks. 

In the case of Colton Dach, it was a fellow young player that Bedard has been known to hang out with away from the rink. In the case of Dickinson and Murphy, they are two leaders who helped Connor Bedard get his feet wet in the NHL. Now, they're all gone. 

After practice on Thursday, Bedard was asked about them being shipped away, and he was very emotional in his responses. 

"Yesterday was really tough," Bedard said of Wednesday. "[Dickinson] I had been with the whole time. He's kind of like an older brother to me."

You don't get raw emotion like that from Bedard very often, but he is a great teammate that guys enjoy being around. There is a sense of loss with these friends being shipped away to new teams, and there is motivation to keep it from happening in the future. 

"It's motivating that this is the last year that we're in a spot where we're moving guys that help us win," Bedard continued. "That's a [bad] feeling. [We'll] just try to not let that happen."

The Blackhawks are not too far off from being a consistently competitive team, but they are simply not there yet.

Veterans who are on expiring deals or young players who are not core pieces have a chance to be dealt this time of year. That's the reality of the situation.

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