Despite the team's poor record, Connor Bedard's popularity and the team's ticket-sales strategies have kept fans coming to the United Center. The Hawks ranked fourth in the NHL with 18,836 fans per game and have a season-ticket renewal rate of 96% this spring.
Connor Bedard jersey sales booming among Blackhawks fans, but Bedard sees himself differently suntimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from suntimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ben Pope/Sun-Times The early-afternoon sun baked defenseman Seth Jones as he sat atop a tour boat Saturday, cruising east on the Chicago River. His casual black T-shirt and athletic shorts belied the fact he had agreed less than 24 hours earlier to an eight-year, $76 million contract, one that presumably will make him a staple of the Blackhawks for almost a decade to come. Passersby on other boats waved because of drunkenness, not because they appeared to recognized Chicago’s newest big-name athlete. ‘‘I didn’t realize it gets this hot in Chicago in the summer, to be honest,’’ he said.