The Chicago Blackhawks as an organization were left dead along the side of the road. The dynasty was officially over when the team traded away Patrick Kane and are letting the Captain, Jonathan Toews, walk out the door as his contract has ended. Dark clouds have hovered over the United Center for the last several years as the owner of the team had foot and mouth disease. The cover up of sexual assault that happened right under the organization nose as they let sexual predator, Brad Aldrich, waltz away from the team with a letter of recommendation. The dynasty finally collapsed as their championship window was shut closed and nailed shut with all the poor play on the ice. The team had a fire sale and got rid of everything not bolted down at the trade deadline. The pulse of the Indian head sweater was weak. Then like some bad experiment gone wrong as the lottery ball or ticket clung on to something in the luck of the draw, the Blackhawks suddenly have a pulse and came alive with the number one draft pick in the next NHL draft.

On Monday night, the Blackhawks won the Connor Bedard sweepstakes. Bedard’s talent on the ice is compared to Pittsburgh Penguins superstar, Sid “the Kid” Crosby. Winning the Bedard sweepstakes was the most anticipated drawing since 2015 when Edmonton Oilers won the Connor McDavid sweepstakes.The NHL’s Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly pulled the lucky placard with the Blackhawks logo on it to signify the first pick in the draft belongs to Chicago. The Blackhawks’ odds of landing the first pick was 11.5% in the lottery. You may have to credit Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson getting rid of veterans and their own superstar Patrick Kane to derail a team that started to string together some victories. If Davidson did not trade these guys, this team would have won more games and the odds would have been very difficult for this team to get a young superstar. That can make this a very fast rebuild for the Blackhawks and get this team back to the post-season. Suddenly the phones were ringing off the hook as fans started booking season tickets for the Blackhawks. Many thought, including myself, this team was going back to a decade of their franchise playing through dark ages where only crickets would chirp at the United Center. Making that a ghost arena in which this bad ownership finally shed their old snake skin ways when they were one of the worst franchises in sports.

Connor Bedard is a scoring machine and he is only 17 years old. Bedard was born in July of 2005 which was a great year in Chicago sports with the White Sox winning the World Series while the Bears were making their run in regular season to make it to the Superbowl in January of 2006. Bedard led Canada to World’s Junior title in 2023. Bedard is a 5’10” center who can out-skate and has state of the art in-stick handling & then can put the biscuit in the basket with his wicked slap shop as he even has a nice wrister shot that can baffle goalies. Last year, the kid scored 100 freaking goals between playing in the WHL, World Juniors and the CHL/NHL Top Prospect game. In the World Junior tournament, he showed the world of hockey how this kid will be one of the league’s next superstars. Bedard is a Captain of his team in the WHL Western Hockey league for the Regina Pats. Bedard has shown improvement in each season he has played in the WHL. In the 2020-21 season, Bedard had a total of 28 points. Then in the 2021-22 season, he had 100 points that season. In 2022-23, Bedard was awesome with 71 goals dishing out 72 assists. Just sick, in a good way.

If GM Kyle Davidson trades away the number one pick and not take Bedard, he would be beheaded and thrown into the Chicago River. Davidson now has a meal ticket for the next few years as fans hope he can build around this kid, Connor Bedard. If Chicago does it right with some savvy moves, they could easily find their way back to post-season very quickly. Could Davidson reach out and resign Patrick Kane? Kane big apple run with the New York Rangers did not go very well as he had 5 goals and 7 assists for 12 points during regular season. Kane really did not show his razzle and dazzle in the playoffs as the Rangers were knocked out in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the New Jersey Devils. Rangers may take a pass on re-signing Kane after they gave up some picks to get the former Blackhawks super star at the trade deadline. Having Kane and Bedard on the same hockey line, it would give any Blackhawks fan goose bumps. Blackhawks fans will be at their edge of their seats wanting to know what their team is going to do to surround their new stud in the barn of the United Center. You can call landing this get out of jail free card lucky for this organization that was sinking like some dinosaur in the tar pits. Somehow a streak of sunshine got through the dark clouds over the United Center or the Hockey Gods have spoken about one of the original six teams not going to be dormant for another ten seasons and beyond. It could be a conspiracy as the league needs one of the bigger markets like Chicago to be relevant once again. However it took place, now the real pressure will be on GM Kyle Davidson to make the right moves as he handed the keys to a brand new sports car that he better know how to drive it. The Blackhawks are alive and have a pulse.