Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

[Coffee]

OP is the only person who seems to be worried

 

[waitin425]

Connor Bustard

 

[JPT]

If he doesn’t have great size and/or speed, he won’t make it. He won’t be elite.

All of your posts come across as the "I'm going to make a prediction that will rile people up because if I'm wrong no one will remember to call me on it anyway" variety.

Genuine concern

Isn't there something people used to call "concern trolling?"

 

[KCC]

This isn’t me trolling. You’re making a big deal out of nothing. I’m just wondering why he’s been looking so bad after all the hype.

OV couldn’t score a goal last year if his life depended on it and had I believe 8 through 43 games but surged in the second half and ended up with 31. Matthews only has 5 goals this season and is now hurt. Players go through ups and downs especially goal scoring. They are the definition of streaky. Bedard will go on a heater eventually. All great goal scorers do. He’s getting chances it’s just not going in for him currently.

 

[Drumman44]

More worried about a sophomore slump that anything. Still wouldn’t trade him for Brock Faber

 

[Leonardo87]

If you are going to make a new thread on a player or team, can you at least look at the first two pages to see if there is a thread already on that subject, before making a new thread. Thanks!

 

[DitchMarner]

5v5 stats:

First 13 games
23.5% shooting percentage
11.2 shots/60
4.61 iHDCF/60
1.39 ixG/60 vs 2.62 G/60

Last 72 games
7.8% shooting percentage
7.6 shots/60
2.68 iHDCF/60
0.84 ixG/60 vs 0.59 G/60

Long story short, he was getting a lot more shots and high quality chances in those first 13 games, and was getting really good puck luck to go along with it. Then something happened, either fatigue, or the fact that teams and goaltenders adjusted. His shot rate, high danger chance rate, and ixG rate all plummeted - the eye test suggests he's having a really hard time getting to the middle of the ice, and teams have been able to keep him to the perimeter without too much trouble. His shooting luck regressed as well, which compounded those factors.

The data seems to suggest he's shooting a lot more from the perimeter than he was at the start of his career, though both his shooting attempt volume and expected goals have dropped dramatically over the course of his career - definitely not trending in the direction you'd expect for a player of his pedigree. The graph below is his career rolling CF/60 and ixG/60 numbers at 5v5:

View attachment 931128

Regardless, this is starting to look less and less like just a cold streak, and increasingly seems like he needs to make some serious adjustments.

I believe Daigle had 12 points in his first six games in the NHL before falling off permanently...

In no way am I suggesting Bedard is the next Daigle (he's already surpassed his peak), but what happened with Daigle (and maybe Yak, who peaked as a rookie) suggests that NHL players and teams adapt quickly to newcomers. The true greats have to adjust. He may do that eventually.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

This thread reminds me of the old Jack Hughes threads. There will be lots of bad takes to look back on in a few years. Maybe even a few months.

 

[coooldude]

Guys, don't feed the trolls.

An account created today, only 16 posts total, all in this thread, from 1am-4am MT (ahem, 11am-2pm in Moscow) and immediately trying to compare Bedard to Michkov.