Morning Chirps: Bedard among the elite, latest on Makar extension

It’s a back-to-work Monday, and we have plenty of hockey news and content to get your week off on the right foot. Let’s get the Chirps started!

Blackhawks Chirps

• Numbers 36-40 in our Blackhawks Number History series include two Stanley Cup winners, two netminders, and a rat!

• Brooke LoFurno wrote about Artyom Levshunuv’s huge summer and how that will translate to success on the ice this season.

• The NHL Network has been releasing its lists of the Top 20 Players Right Now at each position over the past few weeks. It took the center position before a Blackhawks player made an appearance. Connor Bedard was ranked as the No. 16 center in the NHL right now. This is his first time making this list.

• Bedard joined some pretty elite company! Here is the complete list.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Aug. 24: Murray Balfour, Alain Daigle, and Andrew Brunette.

NHL Chirps

• The Colorado Avalanche had an alumni game on Sunday, and before the puck dropped, general manager Joe Sakic met with the media. One of the first questions was about superstar defenseman Cale Makar's pending contract extension. Sakic was quite confident that a deal would be reached before the start of the regular season. My guess is that both Makar’s camp and Quinn Hughes’ camp are waiting for the other to sign first to set the market.

• The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell says that the Edmonton Oilers need one more piece to make a Stanley Cup run. He suggests that they look into what it would cost to acquire either Cutter Gauthier from the Anaheim Ducks or Kirill Marchenko from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Neither player is officially on the trade market, but with Gauthier, things are about to get ugly, so I wouldn’t rule out a trade coming. Mitchell says Gauthier probably isn’t an option since general manager Stan Bowman doesn’t have the assets to get a deal done, so he should target Marchenko.

• Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now recently appeared on NHL Tonight, where they discussed the future of Alex DeBrincat, who is entering the final year of his contract. He believes that as long as the Detroit Red Wings are willing to pay him market value, DeBrincat will lean towards staying in the Motor City.

• Aaron Portzline of The Athletic was on that same episode of NHL Tonight and said that if Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli was going to get an offer sheet, it would have happened by now.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Aug. 24: Bill Goldsworth, Benoit Brunet, Richard Persson, Ian Moran, Mikko Eloranta, Derek Morris, Marcel Goc, Anze Kopitar, Brad Hunt, Parker Wotherspoon, and Olle Lycksell.

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