The Chicago Blackhawks were unable to hold off the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, as they relinquished three one-goal leads throughout the game and lost in overtime.
Although the Blackhawks didn’t have their best game, Spencer Knight kept them in it, and they earned a point in the standings. There are no moral victories in the NHL, but they did find a way to snag a point against the team with the top record in the Eastern Conference without Frank Nazar, Jason Dickinson, and Andre Burakovsky.
Connor Bedard played a role in them getting that point, as he scored the first goal of the game to make it 1-0. From there, although they ended up winning, New Jersey was playing from behind for most of the night.
Bedard’s goal was a 5-on-3 goal that the Blackhawks did a good job creating. With the help of some good keep-ins and board battle victories, Chicago’s good puck and body movement tired out the New Jersey penalty killers. Eventually, Bedard had a give-and-go with Teuvo Teravainen that took Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom out of the net, and Bedard beat him.
This gave Bedard goals in four straight and points in nine straight. To say he’s been on fire would be an understatement. With 26 points, Bedard is tied for second in NHL scoring with Leo Carlsson and Macklin Celebrini.
Chicago’s matchup with New Jersey was a national broadcast in the United States on TNT. Before the game, Wayne Gretzky, who is a panelist for TNT these days, had some really nice things to say about Connor Bedard.
“He’s been absolutely spectacular.” Wayne Gretzky said of Bedard. “It’s such a pleasure to see because coming into this league at 18, you [have] all this pressure on you, you [have] all of this focus on you, you’re not a very good team, you’re a young team, you’re rebuilding. He was front and center; he didn’t back away from anybody or shy away from the media. For him to work as hard as he did in the off-season to come in and play at the level he’s playing at now, he’s earning his way onto Team Canada.”
It is not every day that you get compliments like this from The Great One. As the NHL’s all-time leading scorer and multiple-time Stanley Cup champion, Wayne Gretzky knows a thing or two about being an NHL superstar, and he sees something special in Bedard.
Gretzky brought up Team Canada unprompted. He seems pretty convinced that Bedard deserves and will be on the team. There is a lot to still be decided on that front, but it is hard to argue against his case. If he keeps playing at his current pace, leaving him off would simply suggest that he never had a chance at all.
The TNT panel, which had Gretzky joined by Paul Bissonnette, Anson Carter, and Liam McHugh, also broke down Bedard’s first-period goal. Gretzky compared his goal-scoring play to a Larry Bird no-look pass and called it a fun play to watch.
There is a lot more media attention and praise coming for Connor Bedard as Chicago’s next game will be a Hockey Night in Canada match against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Veteran running back J.K. Dobbins signed with the Denver Broncos last June and has become a valuable member of the offense. Dobbins averaged five yards per carry in his first 10 games and has two 100-yard rushing performances this season.
Dobbins signed a one-year, incentive-laden deal with the Broncos and has formed a quality pairing with second-round draft pick RJ Harvey. Dobbins suffered a foot injury against the Las Vegas Raiders, clouding his outlook vs. the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11.
Given Dobbins’s contributions, it would make sense to keep him around for a couple more years. But what would it take to re-sign him to a multi-year deal?
One thing to keep in mind about Dobbins is that he has a history of injuries. After running for 809 yards as a rookie in 2020, he missed the 2021 season, half the 2022 season, and all but one game in 2023 with injuries.
Dobbins’ one season with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2024 saw him play in 13 games with 11 starts, rushing for a career-high 905 yards. Thus far, Dobbins hasn’t missed a game for the Broncos, but his status for Week 11 against the Chiefs remains up in the air.
Because Dobbins has an injury history, it’s not a good idea to pay him too much. But it would be a good idea to give him a raise for 2026 while giving the Broncos some protection in the following years.
The ideal contract would be a three-year deal that would commit the Broncos to Dobbins in 2026, with some guaranteed money in 2027, but nothing guaranteed beyond 2027. The Broncos would need flexibility to get out of the deal in 2028, as that’s when Harvey would be eligible for an extension of his own.
The best comparison might be D’Andre Swift, a former second-round pick who signed with the Chciago Bears in 2024. He got three years at $24 million with $14M fully guaranteed upon signing and an additional $1.28M guaranteed for injury only in 2025.
A contract for Dobbins wouldn’t need to be structured the same way, but a three-year, $24M deal would be reasonable. If Dobbins were to get a $6M signing bonus, the Broncos could pay him a $4M base salary in 2026, then offer another $4M of a $7M base salary in 2027 that’s fully guaranteed.
That deal would leave the Broncos with a $7M base salary for Dobbins in 2028, but it wouldn’t be guaranteed. Cutting him that year would leave the Broncos with a $2M dead money charge from the pro-rated signing bonus.
It’s likely that the Broncos will hold off on any new contract for Dobbins until after the season. The Broncos might prefer to let him test the market, though it’s possible they could get a deal done before free agency gets underway.
Pairing Harvey with a veteran back is ideal, and Dobbins has shown he can be the veteran in that pairing. We’ll find out soon whether the Broncos see Dobbins as somebody who should stick around for a couple more seasons.