CHICAGO (AP) — Connor Bedard has been named the 37th captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, capping a busy offseason for the young center.
The 21-year-old Bedard is the second-youngest captain in the history of the storied franchise, behind Jonathan Toews. The Blackhawks had gone without a captain since trading Nick Foligno to Minnesota in March.
“Being named captain of the Blackhawks is an unbelievable honor and something I’m truly humbled by,” Bedard said Tuesday in a news release. “The captains who have come before me have left an incredible legacy. To now have the opportunity to carry that tradition forward is something I don’t take lightly."
The long-expected move comes after Bedard agreed to a $75 million, five-year contract in July. It occurs as Bedard ramps up his rehab in his recovery from an operation on his left shoulder. The No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft is expected to miss the start of the coming season after getting hurt while skating with a group of NHL players in western Canada.
Bedard has been Chicago’s most important player since he made his much-anticipated NHL debut in October 2023. He continued his steady improvement in his third season, setting career highs of 30 goals and 45 assists in 69 games.
“Connor perfectly embodies what it means to be a Blackhawk,” general manager Kyle Davidson said. “From the moment he entered the league, Connor has led by example and has set a remarkable standard for himself while demonstrating his ability to make the players around him better."
But Bedard hasn’t experienced much winning since arriving in Chicago. The Blackhawks went 29-39-14 last season, an 11-point improvement from the previous season and still nowhere near playoff contention. The Original Six franchise has finished No. 31 in the NHL each of the past three years.
Chicago is looking for its first postseason appearance since the NHL used an expanded playoff format after the 2020 season was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
FILE - Chicago Blackhawks' Connor Bedard plays during an NHL hockey game Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting in this year’s midterms, saying justices who opposed him were “not the people I interviewed.”
His social media missive was just the latest in a long history of Trump assailing justices, particularly those he had nominated, who ruled against him on his administration's most prominent initiatives. The president has been publicly furious with the Supreme Court over its decisions against restricting birthright citizenship and his ability to issue tariffs unilaterally.
On mail-in voting, the Trump administration had made a last-minute push to have the U.S. Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would be able to receive a ballot. But state election officials argued there was not enough time to make the changes for the Nov. 3 midterm elections — and said their systems were already secure and accurate.
The court ruled late Monday in an emergency order that the restrictions would most likely lose in court, at least for this year’s election.
“The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post Tuesday. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years.”
Justices Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented from the order, and Trump on Tuesday called them “legends both.” Trump has nominated three of the justices on the Supreme Court — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” Trump said. He asserted that the court "is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”
The president has a lengthy track record of attacking judges, often very personally, who issue decisions that go against his wishes, and Trump has long viewed his legal appointments as owing loyalty to the person who nominated them to the bench.
So as Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch ruled against Trump at varying points over the years, the president has not hesitated to go after them publicly, while praising them if they sided with him in a case.
Yet this court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled in favor of Trump on several of his priorities, most notably the 2024 decision from the court's conservative majority that said former presidents are presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. That paved the way for Trump to run for reelection without threat of a criminal trial that year.
Trump has opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Roughly a third of voters use mail ballots, and mail voting has already begun in some states. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years.
On Tuesday, Trump also complained that the decision took too long to issue.
“It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court - it will likely cost me dearly for years to come - but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” Trump said.
FILE - An election worker reaches for an unopened ballot during sorting at the Clackamas County Elections office, Nov. 7, 2024, in Oregon City, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to his limousine upon his arrival at the Ellipse just outside of the White House, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
