Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

[Reality Czech]

Connor Bedard was hyped at the retail level in his daft year. And was compared to Mcdavid or Crosby. But as his first year came and went , the hardcore fans and analysts were not as onboard with it anymore.

Something changed. We even have some fans trying to upsell Jack Hughs and Logan Cooley on him.

Now it's not considered serious to compare him to Mcdavid or Crosby. Why is this ?

There's no guarantee he'll be better than Jack Hughes.

 

[authentic]

You are proving the point that Bedards stock has fallen.

But what are you basing this nonsense on ? He was the 3rd youngest player to record a 5 point game last year, with a jaw brace on.

Nonsense? Thinking he won’t be in the running for a top 5 player of all-time is nonsense now?

I don’t know how you believe what I said proves anything when none of us have crystal balls. You should also read some of my past posts about my projections for Bedard, if you think I’m selling him short your expectations might be a little too high for him.

 

[Zalos]

Not underrated, no. He's going to be a 100+ points producer yearly when his team becomes anywhere near good.

 

[The Panther]

I was a little surprised a month or two ago when people here were predicting the top-10 scorers for 2025-26 and, like, nobody picked Bedard.

Not saying he'll be there, but there's every chance he will. As one of the younger NHL players in League history last season, playing on one of the worst teams of the Salary-Cap era, he scored 51 points in 52 games.

Too early to make any career predictions, but I would not at all be surprised if he pushed towards a top-10 scoring position this season. It will probably require the Blackhawks being a bit better, though...

 

[archangel2]

While not generational he will have a great career if he stays healthy. Everyone knows he is going to get a lot better. Only people saying he is underrated are either Hawk fans or guys in fantasy league that need their ego stroked over getting such a good player

 

[Egresch]

Well it looks like he is untouchable at first. Terrible defending by Sergachev. If all defenders avoid contact like this, Bedard will definitely get 100 pts.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843860812559200432

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I'm not even certain Bedard will be a center long term - he has some of the worst defensive habits I have every seen, and constantly flies the zone and cherry picks. He's mostly a perimeter player at this point. Luckily, he has that elite deception and skill ala Kucherov and Kane to still be productive from the outside. Maybe he is able to get to the middle a bit more as he matures, but I'm not sure he'll ever have the strength or athleticism to be super effective in the corners or around the net.

Despite his baby face, he's pretty physically mature for a teenager, like Crosby was. They actually had very similar dimensions as teens: Bedard 5'10 185 vs 18 y/o Crosby at 5'11 193.

But while teenage Sid was quicker and stronger on the puck than 99% of the league at 18, Bedard is probably weaker than 99% of the league, and has at best average agility. And I don't think Bedard's frame could really support much more than 190lbs without hurting his agility.

There's no guarantee he'll be better than Jack Hughes.

I do think Bedard can become a better point producer than Hughes, but he's not going to be able to dictate the pace and drive play through the middle of the ice like Hughes.

If Bedard becomes as good as Hughes, Hawks fans should be thrilled with that outcome.

 

[Wasted Talent]

It's always good to remember Betteridge's law of headlines:

"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."