Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

[authentic]

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

 

[Adrianopolous]

Watched the whole game today.

He’s not a guy.

Should have spent a year in the minors

 

[Video Nasty]

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.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInDetroit]

no

 

[authentic]

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.

 

[Video Nasty]

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.

 

[Brookbank]

Watched the whole game today.

He’s not a guy.

Comedy.

Imagine watching a player for a whole game , and then deciding what he's going to be lifetime. Its almost like smaller players have a slight disadvantage when they enter the NHL.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Its almost like smaller players have a slight disadvantage when they enter the NHL.

I think some of us tried to say this but the hype was still out of control, with some predicting 50+ goals in his rookie year. He's played 82 now and scored 25.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I think some of us tried to say this but the hype was still out of control, with some predicting 50+ goals in his rookie year. He's played 82 now and scored 25.

It's weird agreeing with you.

 

[Hennessy]

Neither here nor there, but I've benched him tonight in fantasy for Thompson and Barkov. And would've started Duchene over him, too.
That's not an indictment on the player. Chicago sucks. It's hard for even a legit superstar to show up nightly on such a team. He'll be OK.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

His shooting percentage is unsustainably low at 6.1% this season, but it's a small sample so it should bounce a bit. More concerning would be the fact that he is shooting 7.6% over his last 69 games, with only 16 goals, which puts him t-4th on the Hawks in goals in that span. And among guys with >25gp, he's 4th in goals per game, 6th in 5v5 g/60, and 8th total g/60 over that span, behind guys like Katchouk, Blackwell, Donato, Foligno, Kurashev, Dickinson, and Tyler Johnson.

With how weak the Hawks offensive roster has been, and with his extremely generous offensive deployments, Bedard should be lapping his teammates in goal scoring metrics.

That's a larger sample where it starts getting hard to believe he's capable of shooting >15% like other elite goal scorers.

You get the sense that goalies are ready for him. A lot of his shots are coming from the perimeter, and are preceded by him holding the puck for at least 2-3 seconds, so the goalies are set. And the reality is that if NHL goaltenders have an opportunity to get set and have a clean look at a shot from outside the dots, they aren't going to get beat often, no matter how good your shot is.

Bedard has yet to figure out how to consistently get chances around the net, which is made harder by him doing so much primary puck carrying. But he's a smart kid - I think he'll learn how to get to those high danger areas. I think it would help if he was moved to the wing and given an excellent puck transporting center to play with - Reichel, Nazar, and Moore could all fill that role down the road (Reichel is showing signs he could be ready to play that role now).

Good news is that even if he never becomes the elite goal scorer many of us expected, he will still be a very dangerous offensive player because of his outstanding playmaking ability.