McDavid confident Bedard will rebound from fractured jaw

CHICAGO -- Connor Bedard is out 6-8 weeks after having surgery for a fractured jaw, and Connor McDavid can empathize with the Chicago Blackhawks rookie center.

"It [stinks]. I've been in his shoes before," the Edmonton Oilers center said after a 2-1 win against the Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday.

Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, was leading rookies and Chicago with 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists) in 39 games when he sustained his injury on a hit from New Jersey Devils defenseman Brendan Smith in the first period of a 4-2 loss Friday.

McDavid, the No. 1 pick by the Oilers in the 2015 NHL Draft, was off to a great start in his rookie season when he broke his left clavicle in a 4-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 3, 2015. He had 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 13 games when was injured. McDavid missed 37 games before returning Feb. 2, finished the season with 48 points (16 goals, 32 assists) in 45 games, and was third in voting for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL rookie of the year.

"There's no other way to say it other than it's a bad feeling. But things pass," McDavid said. "He'll get healthy. He'll play at the top of his level again this year."

McDavid would know; not only did he pick up where he left off when he returned from his injury, but he has gone on to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL most valuable player three times, the Art Ross Trophy as the League's leading scorer five times, and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the leading goal-scorer in the NHL once. He won the Hart, Richard and Ross trophies last season when he finished with 153 points (64 goals, 89 assists) in 82 games. Since his rookie season, McDavid, now 26, has missed only 15 games.

Bedard's injury meant no rematch Tuesday against McDavid, whom Bedard has drawn comparisons to since before he was drafted.

In their first meeting, a 4-1 win by the Oilers on Dec. 12, Bedard scored to extend his road point streak to 10 games (14 points; nine goals, five assists), the second-longest in NHL history by a player age 18 or younger behind Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (16 games, 2013-14). Bedard's road point streak ended two days later against the Seattle Kraken.

McDavid, who had two assists to extend his point streak to 10 games in that game, wasn't surprised at Bedard's performance in December.

"We saw what we would expect out of him," McDavid said in Edmonton on Saturday. "He obviously scored a beautiful goal here; he showed his patented shot. It feels like he could shoot it from a 12-foot radius, when he's pulling it from his backhand to his forehand, obviously we've seen his curl and drag. He doesn't need much time to get it off and he can get it off from a variety of different places.

"He's a smart player. You don't get to be at his level and his stature not being smart. He knows where to go to put himself in those (scoring) positions."

As for right now, McDavid said Bedard should embrace the challenges and the process that come with working to get back in the lineup.

"Just stick with it and be positive and be a good teammate and enjoy the recovery process because it can be fun," McDavid said, "and it can be exciting to get healthy again."

NHL.com staff writer Derek van Diest and independent correspondent Bruce Miles contributed to this report