Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

authentic

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Jan 28, 2015
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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

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Nov 15, 2022
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From Rob Talks Hockey
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Video Nasty

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Mar 12, 2017
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I’ll admit it. I’m a little disappointed in him so far. 12 points in 14 games in this era in his sophomore season isn’t good enough.

That’s 25 goals and 73 points in his first 82 NHL games. Not bad certainly. But he’s an easy 30 points off what I expected through that number of games.

Let’s also not forget he had 9 goals in his first 13 games. Just 16 in 69 since is fairly disappointing.
 
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authentic

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Jan 28, 2015
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I’ll admit it. I’m a little disappointed in him so far. 12 points in 14 games in this era in his sophomore season isn’t good enough.

That’s 25 goals and 73 points in his first 82 NHL games. Not bad certainly. But he’s an easy 30 points off what I expected through that number of games.

Let’s also not forget he had 9 goals in his first 13 games. Just 16 in 69 since is fairly disappointing.

Could be a confidence issue at this point. Still have to believe he figures it out in the next few seasons and starts lighting it up, but my prediction about him becoming an elite scorer by the end of this season may have been slightly off.
 
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Video Nasty

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Could be a confidence issue at this point. Still have to believe he figures it out in the next few seasons and starts lighting it up, but my prediction about him becoming an elite scorer by the end of this season may have been slightly off.

Hope the tide turns. Would love nothing more than to look back on these comments and chuckle after he rampages to 100 points this season. Want to see some more consistent magic like his brief stretches where he’s gone off.
 
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