The news isn’t great, but it certainly could’ve been worse, too.
After practice on Monday, Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill provided an injury update on Connor Bedard, who suffered an apparent injury to his right shoulder while taking a faceoff in the closing seconds of Friday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. According to Blashill, Bedard is not expected back for this calendar year and will be re-evaluated when the calendar flips to 2026.
Connor Bedard will be reevaluated after the new year. No timeline for a return yet.
— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Perhaps the most encouraging news from Blashill’s update was that they’re not expecting Bedard to need surgery, which could’ve taken this injury timeline from weeks to months.
No surgery required at this time, Blashill added later.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 15, 2025
Some other roster moves followed on Monday, with Ethan Del Mastro called up from Rockford to give the Blackhawks seven defensemen for this week’s three-game trip to Canada and also brought up goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who was in Rockford on a conditioning assignment after recovering from offseason injuries. Brossoit signed with the Hawks in the summer of 2024 but multiple injuries have kept him from playing in Chicago since. Brossoit’s hockey future doesn’t appear to be in Chicago, though:
Laurent Brossoit will be placed on waivers today, Blashill said. If he clears, he will go back down to Rockford.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 15, 2025
As for the on-ice happenings at Monday’s practice, there was a Nick Foligno sighting, suggesting he could be back from his injury soon:
Nick Foligno (out since Nov. 15) will travel with the Blackhawks on this road trip and has a chance of playing in Montreal or Ottawa, Blashill said.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 15, 2025
Foligno wasn’t on the ice during the regular portions of practice, though, so don’t expect him in the lineup for Tuesday’s game in Toronto. The following players were present there:
#Blackhawks lineup at practice:
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 15, 2025
Bertuzzi-Nazar-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Moore-Greene-Lardis
Dach-Toninato-Donato
Lafferty
Vlasic-Crevier
Grezelcyk-Levshunov
Kaiser-Murphy
Del Mastro
Knight
Soderblom
Brossoit
That practice also had some spicier moments from Blashill, who had a particularly choice set of words for Chicago’s 2024 No. 2 overall pick:
Blackhawks running the same lines in practice today as they used Saturday.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 15, 2025
Levshunov just missed his rep in a 5-on-5 drill and got absolutely reamed out by Blashill to “wake the F up.” That’s the angriest I’ve ever seen him.
The Blackhawks will hit the road this evening to kick off a trio of games in five days north of the border, starting against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. And if you don’t have any plans for the game, come join us at the Second City Hockey watch party!