Anyone else think Connor Bedard is extremely overrated and isn’t even close to being generational?

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Sidney Crosby played on an awful Penguins team and put up over 100 points as a rookie. Connor McDavid was on pace to be top 5 in the league in points his rookie year before succumbing to injury. If Bedard was so good he could have turned guys like Kurashev into 60+ point forwards.

I can feel my brain cells dying with each word I continue to read.

You're not mad he's not Crosby or McDavid? How many f***ing 1st overall picks did what Crosby and McDavid did????

 

[Master P]

> Account created August 8th

Oh ok, that explains everything.

 

[ohcomeonref]

Pretty much everyone looks crappy compared to McDavid and Crosby.

 

[GOilers88]

Someone's getting 1st overall pick jealousy, been too long since that itch was scratched for Oil fans. Connor 2.0 is the real deal.

It really does seem like it lol

f*** that.

We don't claim him as our own.

Bedard is a beauty.

 

[PeteEakins]

You're right.

Barron, Dvorak 50% retained and a 2nd round pick in 2047
FOR
Bedard

If your package doesn’t include Tomáš Plekanec and Michael Ryder, then I don’t want it.

 

[TheFinalWord]

Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[SUX2BU]

When does the season start?

 

[TheGuiminator]

I bought into the generational player hype, and frankly, Bedard certainly looked like one, but boy, did he disappoint me.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but when you’re labeled as the next big thing, you’re inevitably going to be compared to the Crosbys and McDavids. Last year, I said numerous times that anything below a point per game would be a disappointment for Bedard's rookie year.

61 points in 67 games is a great stat line for 99% of rookies. However, it's quite disappointing for a player billed as a generational talent. With league scoring through the roof and prime ice time, there was no reason for him not to hit at least 70 points.

Unless Bedard challenges for the Art Ross next season, he's nowhere near the level of Sid Crosby, let alone Connor McDavid.

 

[AKL]

Reminds me a lot of MacKinnon's first couple years in the sense that he was pretty much riding on his skill alone. MacKinnon was still dangerous every time he touched the puck and could beat you by himself, but he was raw. When Bedard gets some polish in his game he'll be at the MacKinnon level too. Not weird for an 18 year old in the NHL.

 

[Fantomas]

Reminds me a lot of MacKinnon's first couple years in the sense that he was pretty much riding on his skill alone. MacKinnon was still dangerous every time he touched the puck and could beat you by himself, but he was raw. When Bedard gets some polish in his game he'll be at the MacKinnon level too. Not weird for an 18 year old in the NHL.

MacKinnon was fourth in team scoring. There were five players on that team with 60 points.

Bedard, well, you can look for yourself. He carried an AHL team pretty much.

He's a much better prospect than MacKinnon was. I'm not predicting perfection, but you have to look at all the variables here. This next season will answer many questions.

 

[MadLuke]

Mcdavid played with Draisaitl, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and RNH in his rookie year.

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/pl...&sit=all&stdoi=oi&rate=n&v=t&playerid=8478402

MOstly with Eberle-Pouliot-Sekera-Yakupov-Fayne-Nurse-Hall-Maroon-Oesterle-Davison-Reinhart-Clendening

64 minutes all year with Drai, less than 35 with RNH

At 5v5, Eberle-Pouliot-Yakupov-Maroon mostly for forward, he turned Pat Maroon into a goal scored in Edmonton.

Lindros didn't have the most statistically dominant rookie season (relative to top scorers) and he turned out fine. I wouldn't write Bedard off yet.

56 even strength points in just 61 games, even in 1993 was not bad at all(#11 in the league in ev ppg), he was #22 in ppg that year.

Lindros was a relatively old rookie too, +28 was leading the Flyers by far.

That season the flyers, when Lindros played
29W-23L-9T, .550 team
when he did not
7W-14L-2T, .363 team

He was already a complete difference maker shifting the ice.

Bedard being smaller and younger is way too soon to write off as a possible all timer, specially with the flash of greatness he showed, for a more recent example than Lindros, Stamkos did nothing his first 40 nhl games (scored 4 goals), second half of is rookie season scored at a 40 goals pace, incredible worlds with St-Louis than win the Rocket.

Crosby-McDavid and had to wait a full extra years playing with adult Ovechkin/Lindros/Malkin were particularly nhl ready

 

[AKL]

MacKinnon was fourth in team scoring. There were five players on that team with 60 points.

Bedard, well, you can look for yourself. He carried an AHL team pretty much.

He's a much better prospect than MacKinnon was. I'm not predicting perfection, but you have to look at all the variables here. This next season will answer many questions.

I don't know why you took what I said as an attack on Bedard.

 

[missionAvs]

I wasn’t impressed by his rookie year. He was under a ppg and a -44 in his rookie year. He is garbage defensively, among the worst I’ve ever seen amongst forwards. The Blackhawks gave up more goals with him on the ice than without. He’s small and not a great skater. He’s bad at the dot. He was heavily sheltered and didn’t face top lines and still was often caved in. He rarely dominated games. He’s extremely one dimensional. Even with his jaw injury he failed to be over a PPG. I would have expected the generational prospect to at least be over that and make the guys around him solid. Him winning the Calder was a joke. It should have been Brock Fabrer. Oh, and he was awful in the IIHF tournament.

He will never be close to Connor McDavid’s, Sidney Crosby’s or Alex Ovechkin’s level. All he has is a good shot, but not the speed or hands of Matthews or the physicality. I’m not even sure he can even be an Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov or Nathan MacKinnon level guy. Maybe he can be a Steven Stamkos or John Tavares type player in time, a good player but never among the best in a season, but he’s in no way generational and I don’t buy the hype. I don’t even think he’ll surpass other Chicago legends like Patrick Kane.

Bedard seems to have affected you greatly. How can we, the posters of HF, help you get through this hard time?

 

[RooBicks]

Nope.

 

[Haatley]

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/pl...&sit=all&stdoi=oi&rate=n&v=t&playerid=8478402

MOstly with Eberle-Pouliot-Sekera-Yakupov-Fayne-Nurse-Hall-Maroon-Oesterle-Davison-Reinhart-Clendening

64 minutes all year with Drai, less than 35 with RNH

At 5v5, Eberle-Pouliot-Yakupov-Maroon mostly for forward, he turned Pat Maroon into a goal scored in Edmonton.


56 even strength points in just 61 games, even in 1993 was not bad at all(#11 in the league in ev ppg), he was #22 in ppg that year.

Lindros was a relatively old rookie too, +28 was leading the Flyers by far.

That season the flyers, when Lindros played
29W-23L-9T, .550 team
when he did not
7W-14L-2T, .363 team

He was already a complete difference maker shifting the ice.

Bedard being smaller and younger is way too soon to write off as a possible all timer, specially with the flash of greatness he showed, for a more recent example than Lindros, Stamkos did nothing his first 40 nhl games (scored 4 goals), second half of is rookie season scored at a 40 goals pace, incredible worlds with St-Louis than win the Rocket.

Crosby-McDavid and had to wait a full extra years playing with adult Ovechkin/Lindros/Malkin were particularly nhl ready

Mcdavid was at 1.06 PPG his rookie season. Bedard was 0.90. Playing with worse players on a worse team. You need to stop.

 

[The Panther]

This thread is a prime example of why people shouldn't be able to create new threads as brand new accounts.

Yes.

It's probably going to age rather like this one: Barzal will be competing with McDavid for who has a better career instead of Eichel

Anyway, to the OP: There are a few things you need to understand:

1) Conor Bedard was 18 last season. Not 18 at the start of the season, but 18 for the entire season -- that is, a high school student for his entire rookie NHL season. In itself, this is extremely rare. (Almost everyone at that age -- and many older -- spend at least another year in junior.) Bedard scored at a 74-point pace overall. So, how many players, before turning 19, have scored at that pace in the entire history of the NHL (min. 40GP)? Let's see:

-- Sidney Crosby 2006 (102 points)
-- Dale Hawerchuk 1982 (100 points) *turned 19 on last day of regular season
-- Steve Yzerman 1984 (87 points)
-- Jimmy Carson 1987 (79 points)
-- Dan Quinn 1985 (52 points but in only 54 games played)

That's it. Those are the entirety of NHL players in history who, entirely at age 18, outscored Bedard 2024 on a per-game basis. Now, you'll note that Hawerchuk and Yzerman are franchise-player-type, legendary Hall of Famers, coming in the League in a higher-scoring period than Bedard did. And you'll note that Crosby is another legendary Hall of Famer.

Carson was an incredibly talent teen phenom, but he was more into business than hockey and flamed out by age 24-25. Dan Quinn's stats are kind of a fluke from being on a high-scoring team in a high-scoring period (in any case, he's an 'asterisk' with 54 games played).

So, aside from Jimmy Carson (who was essentially traded for Gretzky when he turned 20, before he flamed out), the players who've outscored Bedard entirely at age 18 are:
Crosby / Hawerchuk / Yzerman
I'd say Bedard's already in very good company. In fact, if you remove players who were rookies in the 1980s, Crosby is the only 18-year-old in history to outscore Bedard for a full season before turning 19.

I personally think the Hawks and Bedard would have been better off letting the kid play one more year in junior hockey and then bringing him up for 2024-25.

2) Dismissing what I just wrote in (1), there's also the fact that what players (esp. players on really bad teams) do at age 18, or as teenage rookies in general, is often totally irrelevant to their career legacies. Here are how some other notable rookies made out:
Cam Neely: 31 points (now a Hall of Famer)
Craig Simpson: 28 points (2nd NHL in goals three years later; led 1990 playoffs in scoring)
Pierre Turgeon: 42 points (now a Hall of Famer)
Brendan Shanahan: 26 points (now a Hall of Famer)
Markus Naslund: 11 points (later won the Pearson as League's best player)
Zdeno Chara: 8 points (-8)
Joe Thornton: 7 points (-6)
Pavel Datsyuk (five years older than Bedard as rookie): 35 points
Daniel Sedin: 29 points
Etc.

So... maybe give the kid a chance?

 

[Craig Button]

The Blackhawks were even worse defensively whenever he was on the ice.

Then the media needs to stop calling him a generational talent when he’s clearly not.

Yeah they need to stop using that term if they do use it.

I have never heard anyone use that term outside of HFBoards.

They need to use the term Franchise Player instead

Crosby is a generational player
McDavid is a generational player
MacKinnon is a franchise player
Matthews is a franchise player

Generational should only be used on players like Gretzky, Lemieux and players a tier below them like Jagr Crosby McDavid.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Without an 18 year old Bedard, I don’t think the Blackhawks get even 10 wins last season.

I actually think he’s underrated. Could’ve easily had 50 goals and 80-90 points on a slightly better team.

 

[Jacob]

The guy’s a loser.

 

[bigbadbruins1]

Remember when people thought Jack Hughes was going to be bad?

Don't think they have that opinion anymore.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Welcome to the boards, @ItalianSubBro. Always nice to have a genuinely new poster who's never been here before.

Anyhow, the fun has been had.