Has Connor Bedard quietly became underrated ?

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

You are looking at one side of things.

Reichel also has the worst quality of competition on our team.

That's true. Those factors probably offset a bit. But Reichel has significantly outpaced him per minute at 5v5 while making some extremely dynamic plays (1.92 p/60 vs 1.38). Reichel has the 2nd best xGF/60 numbers on the team - he's been hugely improved this year. By the eye test, he's been a better 5v5 player through their first 28 games this year IMO.

Our old coach thought it would be a good idea to match up Bedard against Barkov.

Didn't they win that game though?

Foligno doesn’t play with Bedard hardly at all.

He's been Bedard's 3rd most common forward linemate this year...

 

[WarriorofTime]

That's true. Those factors probably offset a bit. But Reichel has significantly outpaced him per minute at 5v5 while making some extremely dynamic plays (1.92 p/60 vs 1.38). Reichel has the 2nd best xGF/60 numbers on the team - he's been hugely improved this year. By the eye test, he's been a better 5v5 player through their first 28 games this year IMO.

@Kevin Musto

 

[Crow]

That's true. Those factors probably offset a bit. But Reichel has significantly outpaced him per minute at 5v5 while making some extremely dynamic plays (1.92 p/60 vs 1.38). Reichel has the 2nd best xGF/60 numbers on the team - he's been hugely improved this year. By the eye test, he's been a better 5v5 player through their first 28 games this year IMO.

Didn't they win that game though?

He's been Bedard's 3rd most common forward linemate this year...

I don’t agree at all about the eye test. I have been happy with Reichels game. He is pretty good at flying up the ice with the puck and stopping to make some space then dish it off to one of those guys who can’t keep up, or rushing the net. He’s no where close to Bedard though.

The point had nothing to do with winning or losing the game. It had to do with the stark difference in competition.

That’s hard to believe he is that common of a line mate. I’ve seen pretty much every game and they barely play together. How many minutes have they played together? It’s probably more that he barely plays with anyone consistently.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I don’t agree at all about the eye test. I have been happy with Reichels game. He is pretty good at flying up the ice with the puck and stopping to make some space then dish it off to one of those guys who can’t keep up, or rushing the net. He’s no where close to Bedard though.

Cool, agree to disagree. A confident Bedard is very obviously going to outplay Reichel, but Bedard has been really frustrated for much of this year. Meanwhile Reichel has looked extremely confident.

That’s hard to believe he is that common of a line mate. I’ve seen pretty much every game and they barely play together. How many minutes have they played together? It’s probably more that he barely plays with anyone consistently.

Yeah he's been through the mixer for sure. I'm hopping on the ice to coach, but the exact numbers are on natural stat trick.

 

[Crow]

Cool, agree to disagree. A confident Bedard is very obviously going to outplay Reichel, but Bedard has been really frustrated for much of this year. Meanwhile Reichel has looked extremely confident.

Yeah he's been through the mixer for sure. I'm hopping on the ice to coach, but the exact numbers are on natural stat trick.

I think there’s a bit of bias to your post, maybe depending on what games you’ve seen, because Reichel also had a lot of time this year where he played without any confidence. He did have a good stretch which I think started in mid to late November, but before that he looked like an AHLer. Bedard on the other hand has never looked like he didn’t belong.

 

[WarriorofTime]

4th line is good but largely going up against other 4th lines. It's good that Reichel is contributing in his role since a year ago he didn't look like an NHL player at all. So Smith/Reichel/Maroon have relatively nice points per 60, but probably wouldn't if all of a sudden they were the new top line and playing top line minutes, etc.

Reichel is 101 / 371 amongst forwards and Bedard is 159 / 371 in 5 on 5 assists per 60 (min 18 GP to sort out riff raff)

Reichel is 105 / 371 amongst forwards while Bedard is 229 / 371 in 5 on 5 points per 60 because Bedard isn't scoring many goals 5 on 5 right now.

However, Bedard remains a Top 21 Forward in the NHL Powerplay Per 60 producer, which is way better than any other Hawk and a big part of the Hawks being 11/32 in powerplay production this year. So there's still some positives to take away.