Big Contract In Windy City

When you are becoming the face of a franchise, one would hope you would get paid as such. That's what the Chicago Blackhawks have done. Even though he's going to be missing time at the start of the season, Conor Bedard is going to be staying put for a while in the Windy City. Bedard just inked a new five year deal in Chicago worth $75 Million, coming out to $15 million a year on average.

Bedard was taken first overall three years ago by Chicago, and outside of having his time cut a little his rookie year due to injury, played in all 82 games two seasons ago. Last year his game played numbers dropped again due to injuries, but the point totals went up for the third year in a row. Now, he is slated to miss the first couple of months of this season after having surgery on his shoulder. He injured it during a workout a couple of weeks ago. Bedard was coming near the end of his current deal, having been a restricted free agent going into this season.

Chicago is showing plenty of faith in their budding young superstar by getting him locked up to this kind of a deal now. There's no doubt in anybody's mind that Bedard is going to be the guy in the Hawks lineup and the face of the franchise for years to come. The offensive numbers he's put up when he's playing are worthy of the money he's making.

That might be the only thing that leads me to question this contract. He has had injuries the first few years of his career, including this one, which make it hard to justify the price tag. At the same time, the offensive numbers do justify the money. Bedard will be more than worth his payday and then some, when and if he can have a long healthy career after this current setback.

Bedard getting his new contract does lead one to wonder out loud. If Bedard got this kind of a payday, what's that going to mean for Macklin Celebrini out in San Jose? Celebrini was taken first overall the year after Bedard went in the exact same spot. Celebrini just turned twenty a month ago and is entering his third year of a four year deal he got when he came into the league. He finished 4th in the league in scoring last year with 115 points as a teenager. Celebrini is for the Sharks what Bedard is for the Hawks. He's going to be a big deal in the league for a long time, and he's almost done with his rookie contract, and is going to be due for a massive pay increase. One of which is defiantly going to be worthy of, as he's; making less than a million dollars a year.

Bedard's contract is going to be a sign of things to come for contracts of the big stars, and the young guns, around this league.