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C Connor Bedard - Regina Pats, WHL (2023 Draft)

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Adamantoise said:
This guy may be the next great prospect. Definitely more impressive than Wright for me.
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I want to believe (i do) and trying really really hard to keep my seat on the HF Bedard-Hype Train BUT I'm also trying to keep perspective by looking at other 15 yrolds currently playing in that league ..The 15 yrold with the Ice continues to quietly put points up ..7 in 8 games( with 6 even strength) to Bedards 13 in 8 (9 even strength). Will keep watching...
 
snipes said:
Pavel Brendl was close with 134 points in the 1998-99 season. 73 goals for him that year. He was a lazy floater and cherry picker though, fantastic shot and he was one of those guys that matured young. Wasn’t a great skater either.

Bedard is definitely the best forward to enter WHL in a loooooong time. Doing this as a 15 year old and the first true exceptional status player granted in this league makes it even more impressive as he entered the WHL a year earlier than he otherwise normally would have.

His shot is NHL caliber already, I’m so pumped when we can see games live again. He will be must watch player and worth driving to the surrounding communities to watch him play.
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Brendl was only 17 that year and I know he became lazy and a floater as he got older. But I do disagree with what you said about him for that year.

He in my mind is still the most talented WHL player I have ever seen live. It’s too bad he couldn’t have one iota of drive to succeed.
 
KaprizovSaveUs said:
Trending towards generational. Would like to see him as a Red Wing
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I think he could probably be a duck/sabre/red wing most likely, but detroit could just be decent enough from all that youth they have down the road. Again, I really like how yzerman has been trying to ride that ship by being patient, and focusing on the draft rather than FA for the long term success in detroit. Anaheim could be a potential place for bedard, and im sure some pundits will cream their pants at the idea of zegras and bedard on the same team. Buffalo......no explanation needed for that tire fire
 
BigHitter67 said:
I want to believe (i do) and trying really really hard to keep my seat on the HF Bedard-Hype Train BUT I'm also trying to keep perspective by looking at other 15 yrolds currently playing in that league ..The 15 yrold with the Ice continues to quietly put points up ..7 in 8 games( with 6 even strength) to Bedards 13 in 8 (9 even strength). Will keep watching...
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Benson is good but you'd be remiss to not consider the context here:

- Winnipeg is deep, and with one of the better offensive units in the whole league, they present matchup issues for almost every opponent. When teams zero in on Krebs' line, they open up space for Benson/Geekie (two future NHL'ers), who then get to line up against guys who will be selling cars soon.

- Meanwhile, Regina is one of the worst teams in the league. I mentioned this before, but the only other kid I could see even sniffing pro hockey on that team is Feist. So Bedard really is doing it all on his own. I'm convinced that if you swapped him and Benson, you'd see some drastically different totals. It'd be shocking, really.
 
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Nobody's really talking about it but, Bedard's 'exceptional status' turned out not to be the least bit exceptional. In the BC division, Victoria is the only team without a 2005 born player. Vancouver's 2005, Mazden Leslie, had 2 goals in his first whl game.
Bedard is an exceptionally talented player though (obviously).
 
He's going to be a good one.

Stylistically reminds me of a hybrid of McDavid and Cole Caufield.

Will be interesting to see how he matures physically. He's already a very good skater but nothing like McDavid was at 15. But his wrist shot is ridiculous, maybe the best I've seen on a 15 year old kid.
 
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Andy Dufresne said:
Nobody's really talking about it but, Bedard's 'exceptional status' turned out not to be the least bit exceptional. In the BC division, Victoria is the only team without a 2005 born player. Vancouver's 2005, Mazden Leslie, had 2 goals in his first whl game.
Bedard is an exceptionally talented player though (obviously).
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He is the first exceptional status player ever. Which means he can "legally" play a full season.

The WHL has always let 15 year olds play though, but only 5 games. But there are provisions for injury and if their midget season is over. I don't believe there are any midget games at all.

Savoie played 12 games and Dach played 19 games as a 15 year old.
 
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WhiskeyYourTheDevils said:
He's going to be a good one.

Stylistically reminds me of a hybrid of McDavid and Cole Caufield.

Will be interesting to see how he matures physically. He's already a very good skater but nothing like McDavid was at 15. But his wrist shot is ridiculous, maybe the best I've seen on a 15 year old kid.
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As a Vancouver guy, I've been spoiled by watching elite level wrist shots nightly from Pettersson and Boeser. Bedard doesn't have quite the same hands as Petey, but he's shiftier and smarter than Boeser. He really could fall somewhere in the middle of those two player types, and that makes for an extremely tantalizing skillset.

I think due to his current size, however, your comparison is more apt. McDavid/Caufield hybrid sounds like a 1st overall draft pick to me.

I mean, he looked liked a mini Ovechkin in Minor Hockey, but right now he's not what anyone would consider a big kid. It really depends on how he grows into his body.

But yes, that shot could beat NHL netminders today, and this kid will be an elite goalscorer.
 
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All I know is that if Bedard is able to live up to the hype you know the media is going to have a ball with the Connor vs Connor stories, that stuff just prints itself haha. A lot can change in a couple of years still though.

Seriously though it Is strange that there is the potential possibility of two generational players having the same first name, makes you wonder if life is a simulation?
 
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GOing to Sweden for some month I think was a really clever move,as Matthews went to Swiss. learning and picking up some international ideas of the game, to make him planting some more tools in his game. Will make him great, far from one dimensional - wich I think wa a problem for many young hockey prodigys. This kid has learned more about hockey, than other youngsters

In leaning towards a hybrid player of MacKinnon - Nylander.

Tge rush of MacKinnon -- with less physic - but circling around the O zone around D men like Nylander.
 
grentthealien said:
All I know is that if Bedard is able to live up to the hype you know the media is going to have a ball with the Connor vs Connor stories, that stuff just prints itself haha. A lot can change in a couple of years still though.

Seriously though it Is strange that there is the potential possibility of two generational players having the same first name, makes you wonder if life is a simulation?
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LOL it's a funny coincidence, I suppose. Conner/Connor/Conor is a pretty popular name. Not many Waynes or Sidneys coming along either. I predict in 18 years or so the next generational guy will be Aiden, Brayden, Jayden, Cayden or Hayden. :laugh:
 
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grentthealien said:
All I know is that if Bedard is able to live up to the hype you know the media is going to have a ball with the Connor vs Connor stories, that stuff just prints itself haha. A lot can change in a couple of years still though.

Seriously though it Is strange that there is the potential possibility of two generational players having the same first name, makes you wonder if life is a simulation?
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We had 3 players named Bobby each win multiple Hart trophies over a span of 12 years from 64'-76' - Hull with 2, and Orr and Clarke with 3 each.
 
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Bubbles said:
He is the first exceptional status player ever. Which means he can "legally" play a full season.

The WHL has always let 15 year olds play though, but only 5 games. But there are provisions for injury and if their midget season is over. I don't believe there are any midget games at all.

Savoie played 12 games and Dach played 19 games as a 15 year old.
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Well, to be accurate, he's the first exceptional status player since they've had specific age restrictions. I'm old enough to have seen 2 of the best whl players ever play in the league at 14. Rob Brown and Greg Hawgood joined the Blazers mid-season (same year) as far as i recall. Definitely were considered everyday players at 14. The league leader in games played will never be caught, Goodall, played i think in Seattle. From age 14 till 20. Those were different times for sure.
 
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grentthealien said:
All I know is that if Bedard is able to live up to the hype you know the media is going to have a ball with the Connor vs Connor stories, that stuff just prints itself haha. A lot can change in a couple of years still though.

Seriously though it Is strange that there is the potential possibility of two generational players having the same first name, makes you wonder if life is a simulation?
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YUP!! And on it already! Just submitted paperwork last week to have my 13 year old's name changed to
' Conner' . The kid is already an elite U14 player and I'm expecting the name change to propel him to 'generational' status by time he hits junior
 
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I kind of want the Wings to start competing by this kid's draft but if we still suck horribly he will be a great consolation prize
 
Andy Dufresne said:
Well, to be accurate, he's the first exceptional status player since they've had specific age restrictions. I'm old enough to have seen 2 of the best whl players ever play in the league at 14. Rob Brown and Greg Hawgood joined the Blazers mid-season (same year) as far as i recall. Definitely were considered everyday players at 14. The league leader in games played will never be caught, Goodall, played i think in Seattle. From age 14 till 20. Those were different times for sure.
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That's cool, I'm not that old to remember those, but it must have been crazy to watch those guys light up the WHL. Ferraro with his 108 goals and Brown with 212 points, probably unbreakable records.
 
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