Connor Bedard, the NHL’s most-anticipated rookie in nearly a decade, is officially in Chicago.

Despite his insistence that he’s just another player battling for a spot in the Blackhawks’ Oct. 10 opening-night lineup, all eyes will focus on him throughout training camp and the preseason as he makes the leap from junior to pro hockey.

The Hawks will likely struggle as a team again this season, but Bedard’s rate of development and production could provide plenty of excitement and long-term optimism anyway.

Here are day-by-day updates on Bedard’s first Hawks camp:

Sept. 21, Day 1 of camp: Bedard hits the ice

A sold-out crowd of fans at Fifth Third Arena — where the Hawks had to start ticketing practices this season to avoid Bedard mania leading to overcrowding — watched Bedard hit the ice for his first-ever day of Hawks training camp.

With Taylor Hall, Bedard’s expected mentor and near-constant linemate this season, sidelined by a lower-body injury, Bedard skated on a line with Tyler Johnson and Ryan Donato.

Donato was likely a placeholder for Hall, but Johnson could be the early leader to win the other wing job on the Hawks’ first line next to Bedard and Hall. Johnson, like Hall, brings plenty of experience and has been moderately productive when healthy over the past two seasons, tallying 32 points in 56 games last year.

Bedard looked fully comfortable in the drills that Hawks coach Luke Richardson led him through before enduring his first grueling session of end-of-practice conditioning laps at the NHL level.