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 ?
I recall he was considered generational, but I don't think it was truly serious that he was on the same plane as CMD and Crosby. More like he'd carry the torch for the next generation of top tier talent after those guys pass their peaks and primes. At the very least he's a totally different archetype than those two so you can't directly compare them. It also wasn't certain how he'd adjust to the NHL beyond a few guesses, so somewhere down the road, I think the narrative changed to "He'll still dominate, but by how much?" IMO right now he's still an elite talent, but a little bit of wondering which season he will catch fire. I don't think he's underrated, I think a lots of people whether they've realized it or not have assumed his trajectory might be a little bit like Mack IMO and that includes the fact the Hawks roster needs to be overhauled to support him for that explosion. Many just trying to figure who will be in those top spots until he goes full steam ahead. This is just my opinion though. I could be totally wrong.
He rocketed out of the gates as a rookie, but I think that injury pulled a lot of the spotlight off of him and focusing on him via the Calder race wasn't effective. Then there was the Bedard's mom/Corey Perry stuff and I wonder if the Hawks and league just decided to cool the jets on hyping up Bedard for a moment and basically shut down most of the media around the Hawks. I wonder if at this time a lot of media and speculation just naturally turned to a bunch of people looking for dark horses and sleepers.
TBH, I don't recall hearing as much about the Hawks past the TDL as an outside fan other than the blip around the awards ceremony. Honestly speaking, there were a lot of really good stories last season. Not just the Calder race, but the playoffs too. Then just prior to this season starting, 13/21 dominated the media and perhaps no one dared to start hyping anyone else (out of respect), but I think this may start up again once we're a few games into the regular season. Just so many stories worth focusing on other than Bedard in 2024. A rarity.