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2026 Blackhawks Top 25 Under 25: Connor Bedard is once again No. 1

Easily the top honor Bedard received on Tuesday morning.

Posted on by L_B_R
Source: Blackhawks

The 2026 offseason version of Second City Hockey’s Top 25 Under 25 rankings wraps up with the totally unsurprising reveal of the No. 1 young Blackhawks player, who now has an official role with the team that was always going to belong to him one day.

Connor Bedard

  • Position: Center
  • Age: 21 (July 17, 2005)
  • Acquired via: First-round pick (1st overall) in 2023 NHL Draft
  • 2025-26 team: Chicago Blackhawks (NHL)
  • 2025-26 stats: 75 points (30 G, 45 A) in 69 games
  • Size: 5-foot-10, 190 pounds
  • Contract: Five years, $15 million AAV (RFA)
  • Rankings: 1 (Everyone)
  • Last T25U25 ranking: No. 1, no movement

As expected, Connor Bedard once again claimed the top spot in our Top 25 Under 25 rankings and, barring something completely unexpected, he’ll probably continue to sit there until he ages out of the list. At this point, though, there are only so many ways to write about Bedard being the best young player in the Blackhawks organization, so we decided to do something a little different this year. Each member of the Second City Hockey staff who participated in the rankings picked a favorite Bedard highlight from the 2025-26 season and explained why that particular moment stood out to them. We also threw in a few honorable mentions — plays and highlight reels that may not have been defining moments of Bedard’s season, necessarily, but were simply too good or too much fun to leave out.

LBR: Goal vs. Ottawa | Oct. 28, 2025

There are plenty of Bedard highlights where his shot is the main attraction, but his second goal against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 28 was one of those plays when the things Bedard did before the shot stood out to me as much as the finish itself.

The play started back in the Blackhawks’ defensive zone, with Bedard picking up the puck below the faceoff circle and going into single-player mode. He built up speed through the neutral zone and slipped through traffic before he crossed the Ottawa blue line with multiple Senators collapsing around him. Bedard then finished with an absolute snipe past Linus Ullmark, using a drag move to pull the puck in close, which beat the poke check from one defender, and then shot the puck through the legs of said defender while also using him as a screen. It’s the kind of goal that looks increasingly ridiculous the more times you watch it.

On top of the great finish, the part of the play that has always stuck with me is the zone entry. There have already been plenty of moments in Bedard’s short career where he’s reminded me of prime Patrick Kane offensively, although that comparison tends to come up more often with his playmaking. But this particular rush immediately made me think of Kane’s entry on the sequence that eventually led to Bryan Bickell’s game-tying goal in Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins.

Now, the stakes were obviously about as different as possible, but the beginning of the two plays has that same quality. Kane didn’t even get an assist on the Bickell goal, but it helped create the possession that eventually produced one of the biggest goals in Blackhawks history. Bedard’s wasn’t as important, but it’s easy to imagine him pulling off that move in the playoffs, too. Ultimately, both goals are perfect examples of why transition ability can be so valuable, especially when you’re talking about players with this level of skill who can make the most out of very little breathing room.

Beyond Bedard’s goal being cool as hell, it also gave me such optimism for the future of the Blackhawks. Even with expectations for last season not being particularly high, Bedard doing something like that made it feel like there was at least a chance the season could be fun and, more importantly, offered a glimpse of just how good things could be in the years to come. The season wasn’t always fun, of course, but with Bedard pulling moves and scoring goals like that, there was always a reason to keep watching.

If you want to enjoy the entirety of Bedard’s first career hat trick, here you go:

Dave: Power-play Goal vs. New Jersey | Nov. 12, 2025

The act of putting the puck into the net was incredibly low in terms of degree of difficulty for Bedard on this particular goal, but his creativity in the offensive zone is what causes the comedic mayhem to unfold, making the goal at the end as easy as it could be.

Don’t look up how this game ended but when the Hawks faced the Devils early in the season at the United Center, a first-period 5-on-3 from the Hawks resulted in the textbook example of a goalie losing his crease. It’s probably better to watch the entire play develop first before going back for a breakdown of what transpired, so let’s start with that:

Bedard’s the one who causes all the chaos here, because it’s his no-look pass early in this sequence that temporarily breaks the brain of Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom. He completely freezes two of the three NJ defenders involved in the play as well, as they all seemed convinced that Bedard was loading up for a shot.

The pass wasn’t quite in Teuvo’s wheelhouse for a one-timer, so he was able to corral it to maintain possession in the zone. A few strides in from Teuvo and the trio of NJ players who expected a shot from Bedard are completely befuddled, resulting in a total gongshow in front of the NJ net just a few seconds after that initial pass from Bedard:

This was Bedard’s fourth game in a row with a goal and ninth in a row with at least one point as he skyrocketed up the league leaders and was briefly alongside names like MacKinnon and McDavid. Here’s hoping that we’ve got another stretch like that upcoming this season and that it hangs around a little longer this time, too.

Eric: Goal vs. Vegas | Dec. 2, 2025

This is one of THOSE goals — where I felt awed and stupified immediately after it happened, and it took my brain a few additional seconds to process what I’d just seen (cue the dial-up internet noise). There are so many components and levels in what makes this goal so impressive, so let’s take a moment to break it down.

First is Bedard’s read on the initial play. He senses Vegas is about to lose possession of the puck and flies toward the top of the Hawks’ defensive zone with his eyes locked behind him so he’s open to receiving the puck in stride.

The puck hits his stick at almost the exact same as his skates reach the blue line, and now he’s got 120-ish feet of ice to work with and one defender — Vegas’ Shea Theodore — left to beat. Say, how good is old Shea at defense anyway?

Anyhoo…

Bedard recognizes Theodore has the inside position and immediately angles away from him on the backhand to pull Theodore laterally across the ice. Bedard glances at Theodore once as he reaches center ice, then centers his hips as he lifts his gaze and scans past Theodore to see where asshole/dipshit goaltender Carter Hart is set up in the crease. At this point Bedard already knows he’s going to beat Theodore, so now he’s focused on putting himself in the best possible position to shoot on Hart.

Bedard uses a stutter stop as he pulls the puck in to himself to shield it, then pushes it forward as he transfers it up to his forehand. The quick cut back momentarily freezes Theodore and pulls him out of position enough that he’s forced to twist back and transfer his own grip from his backhand to his forehand. This not only puts Theodore completely off balance, but it also sets him up to be a part of the coup de grâce of the entire sequence, or what’s quickly becoming The Connor Bedard Special — the drag and release.

It’s a devastating move that’s so subtle you miss it on most replays, but the instant before Bedard releases the puck he pulls it back into himself which immediately does three things; protects the puck from Theodore’s reach, uses Theodore’s stick as a screen to cloak his release point from Hart’s sightline, and changes his shooting angle once he already has Hart committed to moving laterally across the goal. Then, in the midst of all of this and while his head is head is up the entire time, Bedard shoots the puck back across his body and places it perfectly just over Hart’s shoulder. My favorite part might just be Hart weakly offering up his blocker two seconds after the puck has already blown past him and clanged so loudly off the top corner you could hear it all the way at The Sphere.

I will never get tired of watching this goal.

Honorable mentions:

Assist in preseason vs. Minnesota Wild | Sept. 28, 2025

LBR: This is exactly what I was talking about above when I mentioned Bedard occasionally pulling off some Kane-like playmaking. It’s not at the same pace and the spin goes in the opposite direction, but doesn’t this kind of remind you of this Kane-to-Marian Hossa pass from 2011? Bedard has always been an excellent playmaker, even if his goal scoring received most of the attention when he was younger because, well, that shot is ridiculous. But one bright-side benefit of the Blackhawks lacking high-end playmaking elsewhere in recent years is that we’ve gotten to see just how creative and effective Bedard can be as a passer. Again, it just makes me excited that we should get to watch Bedard pull off this kind of trickery for years to come.

Dave: It doesn’t matter how many times I watch this clip, I still can’t figure out how that puck actually made it to Donato’s stick.

Steal and goal vs. Calgary | Nov. 7, 2025

Dave: They say a three-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey. Four-goal leads are much less stressful, especially with two minutes remaining. I also wanted to mention the first goal Bedard scored during this game, which I imagine came with a “yoink!” from Bedard as he scored it.

LBR: What an exclaimation point this goal was on this game for Bedard! Absolutely picked Morgan Frost’s pocket, glided in on goal, threw a filthy deke, and tucked the puck behind Dustin Wolf. Just nasty on so many levels.

Eric: This was Bedard’s fourth point of the night, and this game came in the midst of the white hot stretch last season where he had seven goals and 11 assists during a nine-game point streak, and seemed to trade off the league lead in scoring with Macklin Celebrini just about every night. The Blackhawks already had a three-goal lead with just two minutes left but Bedard was still like, NOPE, and circled through the neutral zone like a shark before he stripped Morgan Frost and undressed Dustin Wolf. There are lots of metrics that paint Bedard as a negative player defensively, but sequences like this make me believe it’s still simply just a matter of time before he’s able to bend the entire league to his will. This goal also has the bonus of one of my favorite things in sports, the non-celebration after a huge play (my all-timer just might be this Derrick Rose one), and Bedard adds an additional “fuck you” for emphasis with a stonefaced stare down of the Calgary crowd after.

Goal vs. Anaheim Ducks | Nov. 30, 2025

Eric: This one is just so impressive to me. He ends up with the puck on his stick and less room than the inside of a phone booth (kids, a phone booth was a small, enclosed glass structure which contained a public payphone for anyone to use), but that doesn’t make a lick of difference as it takes him about a stickhandle and a half to get Husso to bite and go swimming. This goal is just pure instinct and reaction, and showcases Bedard’s ridiculous processing speed. Bedard loves playing the Ducks (3 G, 14 A in nine career games) and I can’t wait to watch him torch them in the playoffs one day (kids, the playoffs are the annual elimination tournament of the National Hockey League which are used to decide the league champion and award the Stanley Cup).

Dave: Thanks, Dad!

Anyway, I’d be willing to wager that the majority of NHL players in this situation — the best hockey players in the world, mind you — would just fire this puck at the goalie upon the realization that they were in such close proximity to the net with no defender in the way. But there’s a small minority of those NHL players who have the instincts and the hands and the skill and everything else required to do … well, exactly what Bedard did right there.

Shootout goal vs. Vegas | Dec. 2, 2025:

LBR: Considering I’m a proponent of extending overtime so we see the shootout less often, some of the extra extra hockey goals are some of my favorites, and this one from Bedard is just sick. This was a game where it felt like he should have had a few more regulation goals, but I think we’ll settle for the amazing one Eric mentions above and this shootout one.

Dave: When he scored this goal, I was a little worried they were going to overturn it some way because of the rule in shootouts that the puck is supposed to be moving towards the net at all times and that the little stickhandle before he tucks it home would be a violation of it. Quite thrilled they did not!

Eric: How much embarassment can Connor Bedard dish out to one goaltender in the same game? This is the same night where Bedard scored my pick, and this time he dekes Hart so badly that Hart spins himself around, reaches out to try and clear the puck in frustration, but drops his stick instead, which is just — chef’s kiss. Bedard has a 50% success rate for shootouts in his career so far (league average is 32%) and as much as the shootout has always been and will always be a gimmick, a small part of me is excited to see him and Patrick Kane try to one up each other this season.

2026 Blackhawks Top 25 Under 25 list (so far):
No. 2: Frank Nazar
No 3: Anton Frondell
No 4: Roman Kantserov
No. 5: Wyatt Kaiser
No. 6: Sam Rinzel
No. 7: Artyom Levshunov
No. 8: Nick Lardis
No. 9: Oliver Moore
No. 10: Kevin Korchinski
Nos. 11-15: Greene, Nestrasil, Villeneuve, Commesso, Vanacker
Nos. 16-20: Boisvert, Behm, Roobroeck, West, Mustard 
Nos. 21-25: Del Mastro, Gajan, Spellacy, Slaggert, Alalauri
Honorable Mention: Samuel Savoie 

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