With Connor Bedard back to taking faceoffs, the Chicago Blackhawks will have more depth at forward.
On Tuesday, Chicago Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill confirmed that Connor Bedard will get back to taking face-offs.
Bedard was injured during a face-off play on December 12th, which caused him to miss about a month. Since his return, he has played center but has avoided taking face-offs as he continues to recover from the injury.
With this, Bedard has needed to have another center playing wing with him so they can take draws. Most of the time, it has been Frank Nazar once he returned from his own injury sustained right before Christmas.
Now that Bedard can get back to taking draws himself, Nazar can move back into that second-line center role. Having this duo as a two-headed monster down the middle makes the Blackhawks a much better team up front.
Early in the year, the Blackhawks were winning a lot of games because these two were driving their own lines. With the speed and skill they possess, the top-six forward group is much stronger, with them controlling the play.
Jason Dickinson is a likely candidate to be a center below Nazar and Bedard. Nick Foligno and Oliver Moore are both options to play center as well, but they have also both shown that they can be on the wing if necessary.
Moore, in particular, has actually looked better at center than wing, which may go into the decision of line combinations once everyone is back at practice. The point is that with Bedard and Nazar seperated, there are considerably more possibilities on how to construct a winning lineup.
Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Andre Burakovsky, and Ryan Donato are likely candidates to play wing with Nazar and Bedard. There is also the aforementioned chance that Moore plays wing, and calling Nick Lardis back up is an option as well.
Once the trade deadline passes, this group surrounding the top two centers is likely to get even younger. How long until the line combos reflect that after the break? Only time will tell.
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