Connor Bedard may be 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, but he’ll probably be his opponents’ biggest target on the Chicago Blackhawks this season.
Much like Patrick Kane handled his own bullies, Bedard can handle himself. He certainly showed as much Saturday night when he started a third-period fight during the Hawks’ 6-2 win against the St. Louis Blues in their preseason finale at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
But generally the Hawks still want him to have backup.
Enter “Big Rig.”
“A guy like Pat Maroon is kind of a sheriff out there,” coach Luke Richardson said of the 6-foot-3, 234-pound forward. “I think his presence, even on the bench, and you’ve always seen him for years, he steps over the bench on timeouts, and he’ll go up and down the line staring at the other bench. Sometimes that’s the best deterrent right there, and it actually stops things before it happens.”
Last season for the Wild, Maroon tied for fifth in penalty minutes with 60 and ranked fourth in major penalties despite playing just 49 games before being traded to the Boston Bruins.
Maroon, 36, signed a one-year contract with the Hawks on July 1.
Richardson also mentioned Alex Vlasic, Tyler Bertuzzi and others who can get physical in a teammate’s defense.
In January, Nick Foligno broke a finger exchanging punches with New Jersey Devils defenseman Brendan Smith after Smith collided with Bedard and broke his jaw, causing the star rookie to miss 14 games.
“Now (Foligno) has more support with the guys that we have in here, like Bertuzzi, like Patty, and Dicky’s (Jason Dickinson) the same version of himself in that way,” Richardson said. “Other teams see it, they don’t think it’s a green light just to go push someone around on the team and try and intimidate us or change the flow of the game.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen with this team this year.”
Bedard still has plenty of awareness to duck a lot of hits. According to NHL Stats, he took 77 hits last season, which ranked 502nd in the league. He drew three high-sticking, one roughing and one interference penalties.
Alex Vlasic led the Hawks with 111 hits taken, and Jason Dickinson — who plays a more physical, all-around role — received the most hits among Hawks forwards with 104.
“A guy like Pat Maroon is kind of a sheriff out there. … He steps over the bench on timeouts, and he'll go up and down the line staring at the other bench. And sometimes that's the best deterrent right there.”
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—Luke Richardson on Pat Maroon being a guardian for Connor Bedard pic.twitter.com/zql05Jd0yt
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) October 4, 2024
“I probably took three or four big hits in 68 games,” Bedard said in April during last season’s exit interviews. “That’s not crazy. … It’s physical, and I want to have the puck on my stick a lot and sometimes that’s going to happen.
“Just when I got blown up maybe it was a little bigger story, which is fine, which is expected, but it’s going to happen and I’m not going to shy away from trying to make something happen.”
Conversely, Bedard’s teammates have gushed about how he has been more engaged in puck battles and more physical overall in camp.
“He’s not going to go in and knock over a guy like Vlasic, but he’s smart about it,” Richardson said last month.
And don’t forget: Last season against the Detroit Red Wings, Bedard rocked Kane along the boards.
“He’s pretty mild mannered, and he calms down quickly,” Richardson said before Saturday’s game. “I think that’s the same as getting in a tussle with a guy. I don’t see him ever going back the next shift and slashing and going after him. I think it ends quick, his memory’s short, and that’s good.
“He wants to go out and score the next shift. That’s what we’re focused on and we just want to make sure we keep him focused on that.”
So much for that notion.
Late in the third period of the game, Mr. Mild Mannered started shoving and punching Blues forward Zack Bolduc, setting off a scrum. By the tail end of it, Hawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski put Blues forward Dalibor Dvorsky in a headlock and eventually took him down.
Bedard received a minor penalty for roughing and Korchinski a fighting major.
“It’s hockey, it’s a physical sport, and it’s good to see for myself and for our whole team, obviously I was getting into it and then our whole team jumps in there,” Bedard said. “That’s the brotherhood you need, and it’s cool to see Korch kind of chucking ’em.
“Well, I didn’t see it, but guys were telling me, so I’ll watch it. He was telling me he was pretty proud of it, so that’s good.”
“I was getting into it and then our whole team jumps in there. That's the brotherhood you need and it's cool to see Korch kinda chucking em.”
—Connor Bedard on starting a fight with Zack Bolduc, kicking off a scrum that ended with Kevin Korchinski taking down Dalibor Dvorsky pic.twitter.com/PReoX464RM
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) October 6, 2024
Richardson smiled when asked about the dust-up but still expressed concern for his star player.
“I think Connor needs to stay out of that stuff if he could,” he said. “But I like the thought process of it and his mentality that he’s not going to take anything from anybody out there and he’s here to stay and he wants to own his ground out there. But at the same point, in those type of things, guys fall down and get rolled over on, someone pops a shoulder or hurts a hand or twists an ankle. We can’t afford that, especially with a guy like that.”
After saying earlier in the day that Bedard is naturally calm, Richardson said he’ll keep teaching Bedard to manage his emotions.
“He’s obviously more important on the ice than off the ice,” Richardson said. “That’s probably never a good trade-off for us.”
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