Blackhawks Season Ticket Sales Explode After Getting No. 1 Pick

The tides are changing for the Chicago Blackhawks, and they are changing in a hurry after the team won the NHL Draft Lottery on Monday night. That news came with a massive spike in season-ticket sales.

Chicago came out on top in the lottery — or as it should've been called "The Connor Bedard Sweepstakes" — disappointing the Anaheim Ducks, who had the worst record in the league, but will pick second.

With the revelation that the Blackhawks will have a new franchise centerpiece come the draft next month in Nashville, fans wanted to make sure they could see the resurgence for themselves.

The Blackhawks reportedly sold nearly $2 million worth of season tickets in less than 24 hours following the lottery.

Man, that's wild. Chalk it up to the first reported instance of the Bedard Effect in Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks attendance numbers have taken a hit since the team started to struggle several years ago. (Photo by Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

Blackhawks Attendance Fell Off A Cliff In Recent Years

Things have been terrible for the Blackhawks over the last few seasons. While the team was able to build a dynasty through the early to mid-2010s, they've since fallen on dire straits.

The Blackhawks had a staggering 535-game sellout streak that ran from 2008 to 2021. This past season, they only averaged 17,167 fans per game. That's only 83.7% of the arena's capacity and put the team at No. 30 in the NHL in attendance by capacity percentage.

This season, they traded one of their centerpieces from the three-Stanley Cup run, Patrick Kane (who was selected first the last time Chicago had the top pick in 2007), to the New York Rangers. They also announced that captain Jonathan Toews would not return to the team next season.

Talk about great timing. With the franchise needing someone to build around, it landed Bedard, who tore it up this season with the WHL's Regina Pats tallying 143 points in just 57 games. He's widely considered the best prospect to come along since Connor McDavid.

Is he really that good?

Yes. Yes, he is.

Bedard headlines a deep 2023 draft class. The expectation is that he'll be followed by Michigan Wolverine Adam Fantilli. That's a pretty cool consolation prize for the Ducks.

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