Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks Agree to a 5-Year, $15M Average Annual Value (AAV) Deal, Totaling $75M Guaranteed Over the Life of the Contract
As the RFA rampage settles down, there was a lot of talk among the hockey community about when Bedard would sign and with whom. With the Leo Carlsson offer sheet coming first from Philadelphia, many thought it was only a matter of time before Connor Bedard would sign. That matter of time became a week and change.
I was listening to the 32 Thoughts podcast, “Behind the Scenes with the Keators,” which was a sit-down interview with Carlsson’s representatives. Surprisingly, they admitted they were waiting for Bedard to set the market, which I think we all expected him to do. Certainly, we all thought he was going to, but to hear them actively use that as part of their strategy was something I found interesting.
This puts Bedard third in AAV in the league behind the newly signed Carlsson and Kirill Kaprizov, but this could easily work its way into one of the best contracts in hockey. Comparables in terms of contract value are Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, where we all think they should be making multiple millions more than they actually received on their current deals.
If you remember from the RFA Rampage article I wrote, I predicted $16M a season on a five-year deal. While I was only $1M off, that $1M, as a percentage of the cap, could really become significant as the salary cap increases. We could end up applauding Kyle Davidson for the tidy work he did with this deal.
Kyle Davidson has been under hot water after the fifth-year GM made a trade for the fourth overall pick and Louis Crevier, a touted prospect, in exchange for stud defenseman Bowen Byram. Part of the criticism was because the draft was defense-heavy, allowing Chicago to add to its embarrassment of riches of young talent. The other part was that Davidson then signed Byram to a $12.5M AAV deal, making him the highest-paid defenseman heading into the 2026-27 season. The concern stems from the fact that while Byram was a huge part of the Colorado Avalanche’s 2022 Stanley Cup-winning team, he was never the guy. That role belonged to Cale Makar, who was already cementing himself as a perennial Norris Trophy candidate.
While we await Jason Robertson’s arbitration hearing, third place in AAV seems like a good spot for a generational talent that Bedard is molding his game to become. Time will tell, but this looks like good, tidy business by a Chicago team that might finally get a spark from some of the big additions and extensions they have completed so far.
