Connor Bedard, Philipp Kurashev Confirm World Championships Participation

The Chicago Blackhawks are done with their 82-game grind.  The hope for next season is that they will be better after another bottom-three finish. One thing that players from non-playoff teams can do is go play in the IIHF World Championships. Both Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev confirmed their participation during locker clean out Saturday.

The first one is going to be the most notable as Connor Bedard is going to play for Canada. Bedard, the future Calder Trophy winner, is not ready to be done playing for the summer. He had a sensational rookie season that saw him score 22 goals and have 39 assists for 61 points.

A lot of the time, he looked like the superstar player who could go down as one of the all-time greats if he keeps developing at this rate. He missed some time with his jaw injury but he still managed to be the league’s best rookie over the 82 games.

Playing in this event will be good for Bedard. He will learn what it feels like to play this many regular season games (it is the most he’s ever had to play in his life even with the injury) and then go into late May. If the Blackhawks want to win a Stanley Cup with Connor Bedard, he will have to learn what that is like.

Will it Be Connor Bedard or Philipp Kurashev Who Scores On Mrazek First?

The other going is Philipp Kurashev. He confirmed that he is going to play with Team Switzerland after the best year of his NHL career. Spending a lot of time with Bedard paid off for him as he has 18 goals and 36 assists for 54 points. He was good for Bedard as well.

A light moment during locker clean out today was about Bedard and Kurashev both talking about burying goals on Blackhawks teammate Petr Mrazek.

“It’s going to be fun,” Kurashev said.  “I played against Jonesy the last time I was there and that was a little weird but it’s fun, especially we’re going to be in the same city as well so hopefully we’re going to spend some time together. Also I know what Connor said about Mrazek, we’re both trying to score on him, so it should be fun.”

The Swiss team should be filled with great players for Kurashev to play with as well. It may not be the same supporting cast that Bedard will have but there will be some solid talent over there as well. It is exciting to know that he will go there to try and keep his great season going.

Connor Bedard is the future of this organization and everybody knows it. They want to build around him. Having a good young player like Philipp Kurashev as one of the building blocks looks like it will be great for everyone involved as time goes on.

Playing in the World Championships is both good and bad. It is bad because it means your team wasn’t very good and didn’t advance to the playoffs. It is good because although it isn’t best on best, it is a very competitive tournament loaded with great players. Hopefully, this leads to both of them going into the summer feeling good about their games.

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