Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

[ijuka]

Bedard scored 90 goals and 186 pts in 71 games in his draft year.
Mcdavid scored 68 goals and 180 pts in 74 games in his draft year.
The hype was well deserved for Bedard at that time.

Yeah, though WHL is not OHL. See the quality of players that have come from one league vs the other.

 

[ViD]

Bedard will no doubt be a fantastic player. However, wouldn't surprise me if his physical tools will limit his dominance. Kinda small and doesn't have that outrageous speed like McDavid or the strenght/speed combo of MacKinnon etc.

A guy like that just scored 144 points..

 

[TruePowerSlave]

A guy like that just scored 144 points..

We will see if Bedard ever reaches something like that. Time will tell.

 

[Regal]

Bedard scored 90 goals and 186 pts in 71 games in his draft year.
Mcdavid scored 68 goals and 180 pts in 74 games in his draft year.
The hype was well deserved for Bedard at that time.

The numbers were certainly there to justify the hype. But scouting goes beyond just junior production and I think it was easy to focus on the numbers and gloss over the questions of whether he could translate his production as well as McDavid did, due to his skating and size.

 

[Acallabeth]

I think even if he finishes this season 15 + 65, I would not call it a horrific season for him, just underwhelming

80 points is nothing to sniff at.
15 goals in a full season for a player whose shot was considered his strongest asset (and even one of the best ever) during his draft year would be somewhat perplexing.

 

[Dicky113]

A guy like that just scored 144 points..

3” in height is a huge difference though. Having said that, Patrick Kane/Kucherov is still within realm of possibility; he just isn’t getting to McDavid/Crosby/Ovechkin level.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

80 points is nothing to sniff at.
15 goals in a full season for a player whose shot was considered his strongest asset (and even one of the best ever) during his draft year would be somewhat perplexing.

The biggest issue lately is he's just not shooting the puck.

Only 6 shots in his last 6 games after 49 in his first 14 games. It makes me think he might be dealing with an upper body injury. Either that, or his shooting confidence is just completely shot (which is believable given his challenges with beating goalies this year).

I'm still 100% confident he's gonna turn it around to become one of the league's top scorers down the road.

 

[RANDOMH3RO]

Bedard will 100% be a top talent hart trophy level player. Progression isn’t linear though, things aren’t always trending up. A rough couple months as a 19 year old is pretty reasonable.