Bedard's new contract will begin in 2026-27, when the salary cap will be $104 million. How will the negotiatons be handled on each side?

At 4:52 of the second period, Mikko Rantanen scored his first goal as a member of the Hurricanes. One minute later (5:59), Jaccob Slavin made it 3-1. For a team as offensively challenged as the Blackhawks, that felt like a hill too steep to climb.

Connor Bedard scored from a seemingly impossible angle as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Tuesday night, and the star forward said after the victory that "I've tried that shot a million times and I finally put one in.