Connor Bedard just said the quiet part out loud about the Blackhawks future

The Chicago Blackhawks didn't have a lot of believers entering the 2025-26 season. The team is relatively young, as they try to build around superstar Connor Bedard. So, entering the campaign, the Blackhawks were projected by many outlets to finish near the bottom of the Central Division standings and the NHL standings as a whole.

On Wednesday night, the Blackhawks took on the rival St. Louis Blues, and routed them by the score of 8-3. The Blackhawks were tied 2-2, and scored five unanswered goals, including one goal from Frank Nazar. All in all, a great game that showed promise for the Blackhawks.

After the game, Bedard and Nazar spoke with the NHL on TNT crew. Bedard was asked by Hall of Fame goalie Henrik Lundqvist what the team focused on to make improvements for them to take that next step. Bedard said they wanted to "build an identity of who we want to be." But what really stuck out was Bedard saying this team isn't focused on the future — they're focused on winning now.

"We're young, like you said, we're fast, we're going to play with energy, we're competitive. We want to win. We don't want to win in three years. We want to win now," said Bedard.

Connor Bedard has a 'win-now' mentality for Blackhawks this season

This is exactly what Blackhawks fans wanted to hear. The team has been a far cry from the teams during the 2010s dynasty. Now, maybe the time has arrived for Chicago to take that next step and make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

The Blackhawks won the literal lottery in 2023 when they secured the No. 1 overall pick to select Bedard. The hope was that he would help jumpstart their rebuild and put the team back into contention status.

Bedard's first two years were consistent. As a rookie, Bedard notched 61 points (22 goals and 39 assists) to win the Calder Trophy. But the Blackhawks finished in last place in the Central and 15th in the Western Conference with a 23-53-6 record for just 53 points. Last year, Bedard put up 67 points (23 goals, 44 assists), just a slight uptick despite playing 14 more games. Yet, the Blackhawks finished in the same position in the division and conference, but with a 25-46-11 record for 61 points.

This year, Bedard believes that this team is ready to take that next step after the Blackhawks were virtually non-competitive. The team has young players ready to contribute right now such as Nazar, paired with veterans like Teuvo Teravainen, Ilya Mikheyev, and Nick Foligno. The season might still be young, but there is reason for promise. They put up a fight against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the season opener, and blew out the Blues.

As long as the Blackhawks can keep this play up, we may very well see the team competing for playoff wins for the first time in the Bedard era.