Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

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I had Bedard pegged as a guy with a 60 goal 120 point ceiling, but I don't think him being ahead of Mackinnon at this age means a ton. They are completely different players.

Bigger, more powerful guys like Mackinnon often take longer to reach their full maturity - this is why citing Howe as an example of a generational player that took a while to hit his stride doesn't really hold much water.

Consider that Mackinnon was only 6'0 180 before the draft, and has since added 20 lbs. Meanwhile, Bedard already weighed 185 lbs, despite being only 5'9.75 at the combine. He is much closer to his physical maturity than Mackinnon was at the same age.

Bedard should continue to get stronger and faster, but he's probably closer to a finished product than Mackinnon. More importantly, his offensive game doesn't rely as heavily on those athletic attributes as a PWF like Mackinnon, so we wouldn't expect to see a dramatic improvement in his offensive performance as a result.

Also how is he light years ahead of MacKinnon anyway? Rookie MacKinnon had 10 points in his first playoff series, he was scoring pretty similar to Bedard in the regular relative to the league.

 

[Brookbank]

From Rob Talks Hockey