Could Connor Bedard Wait To Sign Next Deal With Chicago?
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin. With the trade deadline over, he was asked about Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks. Could he see Bedard signing his next deal this July 1st, or will he wait?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Gord Stellick: “So on the other side, you look at some sellers, and certainly in the Western Conference, you got four teams that have been out of it, disappointing year for Seattle, a disappointing year for Nashville, San Jose kind of understood they’re in a rebuild. Chicago Blackhawks, Elliotte about Connor Berdard kind of looking going, ‘I think (Macklin) Celebrini and (Adam) Fantilli are have having more fun than me.’
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He’s up for July, 1 year in advance, like you would have thought he would be hitting the big time. And you find the frustration there. His first 10 games in the NHL, they monitored every shift he did. Now, he’s kind of an afterthought. He’s in the El Gordo plus-minus police a little bit too often because he’s not on a very good team. And I’m curious ok, kind of pressure that we got to do a better job around him.
What kind of money do you think he gets? I would have said two years ago, whatever top dollar was, but July 1st is like an Alexis Lafreniere contract. I don’t know whatever. I mean here we are, almost two years later, from the next Auston Matthews Connor McDavid player, who after two years, isn’t.”
Elliotte Friedman: “That’s a good question. I’ll think, this caps going up, you know. I mean, he’s gonna, I mean, obviously him and his reps are gonna, I have to be honest, Gordon, I really haven’t thought about it a lot. But my position on this always is when you have these players sign them for as long as you can, because the number doesn’t ever go down.
I have to be honest with you Gordie, I really have to think about that more before I really answer it, because, look, he’s their franchise cornerstone. He’s their guy, and the ask is going to be big, obviously. I really have to look at it. But my position on this is, when you have these kinds of players, you sign them for as long as you can because the price doesn’t go down.”
Stellick: “What time can you get back to us? Next Wednesday? (laughs)”
Friedman: “I’ll be at the GMs Meetings next week. I’ll pull Kyle Davidson aside and say Gordon Stellick wants to know what Bedard’s next contract is going to be.”
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Stellick: “It is, and now we can move on for the trade deadline. It is an interesting question right now?”
Friedman: “Yeah, no, it’s a really good question. I mean, the other thing you can do is, I mean it is an RFA deal, right? Like you could always wait until the end of next season if you wanted to. I mean, there’s no question that right now we’re going through a situation where with the cap going up, you can plan long-term like you never have before.
And the agents are being smart about that. They’re using percentage of cap, and the teams are trying to draw a hard line now, and they’re trying to say we’re not doing that anymore, except for the top players and Bedard on Chicago, he’s their top player. So there’s a lot of fascinating philosophical and logistical conversations about this.
I just don’t have a good answer for you right now, but I will do some work on it.”
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