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Connor Bedard is one of the best young Canadian hockey players in the NHL.
The Chicago Blackhawks center just missed out on making the Olympic team, which likely had him looking forward to this summer's IIHF World Championships.
It turns out Bedard won't get to play, though.
The news came out on Friday, and it's a bummer for Bedard.
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Why isn't Connor Bedard playing at IIHF Worlds?
This dates back to an injury Bedard sustained midway through the NHL season.
He hurt his shoulder on a faceoff, and it forced him to miss 12 games.
Bedard would come back and play the rest of the season, but he wasn't fully healthy.
"(Bedard) really wanted to go, but was told the best thing for next season was to rehab his injury and skip the event," NHL insider Elliotte Friedman wrote on X on Friday morning. "So that is the decision."
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It's not clear exactly how the shoulder injury progressed through the season. On paper, it seems as if Bedard could've kept playing through it if he was already doing so.
It also is fair for Chicago to want its young star to heal up before what the Blackhawks will hope is an improved season in 2026-27.
It'll just mean that for now Bedard will miss out on another big stage for Team Canada and will have to be patient for when his big chance to represent his country will arrive down the line.
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