From the moment the Chicago Blackhawks won the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery, general manager Kyle Davidson might as well have had a Connor Bedard salary cap calculator inserted into his brain.
As exciting as drafting a potential generational player was for the organization and as much cap flexibility as Davidson has had in the early years of his rebuild, Davidson has known since winning the lottery that the day would come when he’d have to agree to a second contract with Bedard. And that cap number will influence every decision from there on.
Even though those negotiations can’t officially begin until July 1 and may not even be agreed upon until the following summer — after the final season of Bedard’s entry-level contract —
Davidson has been preparing for a while now. Davidson’s recent hiring of Chris O’Hearn, a salary-cap specialist, was certainly done with Bedard in mind. The Blackhawks will soon have a more complicated salary-cap puzzle to put together, and Bedard will be the piece to fit everyone else around.
Only so much preparation could be done before Friday, though. Looking at comparables, analyzing currently signed players and lining up when
Blackhawks’ other young players could be due new contracts can only take you so far down the road. The missing information was the salary cap itself.
The NHL and NHLPA provided that Friday, revealing a three-year estimated payroll range with the cap ceiling at $95.5 million for the 2025-26 season, $104 million for 2026-27 and $113.5 million for 2027-28.
In regards to Bedard, those last two numbers are the important ones.
Bedard’s second contract will begin with the 2026-27 season. An interesting wrinkle in negotiations is knowing that
