"Nobody is afraid of Bedard"....Bruce Boudreau

[57special]

ehh... he's a good player, but no Faber.

 

[SimpleJack]

ehh... he's a good player, but no Faber.

That was last years catch phrase. This year its "ehh...he's a good player, but no Celebrini". I wonder who its gonna be next year. Early favorite is probably Demidov.

 

[TKB]

This thread is crazy. Someone said he will be a Taylor hall caliber first overall pick. Like cmon.
And someone is comparing him with Jack Hughes as a 19 year old. Bedard will probably be the teenager with the most points in the nhl outside of Crosby in the last 40 years. With no help. Hughes was horrible in his rookie year and better his second but still not close to what Bedard is right now.

He is young, not fully grown and has a lot to learn but he is 19. He doesn’t have to be the best in the league yet.

I know the media likes to run with this, but this can be very misleading, McDavid turned 20 in January of his D+2 season. IIRC Kane turned 20 in November of D+1. Bedard turns 20 after his entire second season, as will Celebrini who is on his tail.

What does it look like if you just use NHL points in D+1 and 2 years?

He is still going to be ranked pretty high, but it is this kind of hype that is putting him in the bullseye to begin with which isn't really fair (and I say that as someone who agreed with Biz's comments last night based on the all of 2 games I have seen him play this year).

By draft year birthday he is young. He needs some time and seasoning before we see what he can ultimately become.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I’ll go

Ceiling: Kucherov

Middle: W. Nylander

Floor: Eberle

I think his floor and middle are both a bit higher, and his ceiling maybe a bit lower, but generally agree. Not sure he'll ever be physically strong enough to be Kucherov, but he can probably get real close.

 

[H3ckt1k]

Not really a twig. He is lean and pretty cut but lacks Girth. He’s also sub 5’10 per thr combine. Just how he is. Can add a bit of weight over time but defending a smaller guy like him who doesn’t possess great wheels is easier than defending against McDavid or MacKinnon.

Trust me, he doesn't lack that

 

[shakes the clown]

I'm curious as to whether his ceiling is going to even be that high. Though of similar stature, Hughes is a significantly better skater, being faster, quicker and a hell of a lot shiftier.

Of course the one thing Bedard has that could be his ace in the hole is his all world shot. There may not be a huge margin keeping him from already scoring goals at a high rate, and if he gets just a bit faster, or just a bit stronger, he might be able to start finding the time and space, or gain the shot velocity to beat NHL goalies like he did the goalies in junior.

Bedard also has amazing hands and all world vision and IQ. All of those he does better than Hughes.

 

[SimpleJack]

I know the media likes to run with this, but this can be very misleading, McDavid turned 20 in January of his D+2 season. IIRC Kane turned 20 in November of D+1. Bedard turns 20 after his entire second season, as will Celebrini who is on his tail.

What does it look like if you just use NHL points in D+1 and 2 years?

He is still going to be ranked pretty high, but it is this kind of hype that is putting him in the bullseye to begin with which isn't really fair (and I say that as someone who agreed with Biz's comments last night based on the all of 2 games I have seen him play this year).

By draft year birthday he is young. He needs some time and seasoning before we see what he can ultimately become.

However you slice it, he's up there with some very impressive company. And doing it with as little help/weak of a roster around him as anyone else being mentioned here.

And here's the thing....trying to compare him to other greats based on what they did that same year/age can also be misleading because not every single all-time great player "breaks out" at the same time of their career. I mean look at Kucherov for example. So who knows how this plays out. All i know is he's playing well enough and the team around him is gradually coming along with a long way still to go before their rebuild is complete. So ultimately your final statement sums it up nicely: "He needs some time and seasoning before we see what he can ultimately become".

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Watched him last night, he still shows incredible potential but its hard not to see the bad habits setting in. Some of the things he tries in a game is shocking. Like wtf are you doing shocking. I think I saw him try two dangles and a crazy cross ice pass on the same shift, all three resulted in a odd man break the other way.

He needs to be snapped out of these bad habits soon or I can see him topping out as like a PPG player vs franchise altering star.

 

[SimpleJack]

Bedard also has amazing hands and all world vision and IQ. All of those he does better than Hughes.

So true. Something that, go figure, nobody EVER seems to bring up around here. It's always what he's not doing, what he needs to be better at, just all negative all the time. Funny how that works.

I've been underwhelmed by his shot/goal scoring, though its mostly a product of him being forced into a "QB"/facilitating role when in the Ozone, being the guy who has to set up everyone else simply because there's nobody else capable of it on the roster. When he gets some help and someone else who can initiate the offense and set things up, he's gonna start putting up big goal totals with that shot of his.

In the meantime we're seeing him show off his vision and playmaking instead. And its been a pleasant surprise. He's just as dangerous passing/setting up others as he is shooting.

Watched him last night, he still shows incredible potential but its hard not to see the bad habits setting in. Some of the things he tries in a game is shocking. Like wtf are you doing shocking. I think I saw him try two dangles and a crazy cross ice pass on the same shift, all three resulted in a odd man break the other way.

He needs to be snapped out of these bad habits soon or I can see him topping out as like a PPG player vs franchise altering star.

oh ffs....

 

[deca guard]

way to bring a young kid up to the bigs chicago
zero common sense

 

[elmaco]

He’s actually pretty big for a guy his age that’s in the nhl, having that muscle actually translate to strength while playing hockey is his issue. There’s plenty of elite players that probably have similar amounts of muscle or less (look at the clip of McDavid shirtless in the Amazon documentary).

Except those guys aren't under 6 foot. Body type is really skinny too, look at pictures when he entered the league, he looks so tiny.

 

[kevsh]

It's hard to play winning hockey with a shit roster and a lack of support.

This. The bottom of the league overall is a black hole of offense, not just the Hawks.

Look at the bottom 6 or so teams in the league and there's maybe two players even breaking a PPG (Forsberg and Tage I believe are, or close). These teams have little to no scoring depth and support for their top guys.

If/when the Hawks can ice a decent NHL team, Bedard is going to take off.

 

[shakes the clown]

Bedard and Kane is a better comparison, though Bedard lacks Kanes hockey iq. That's not to say that Bedard has bad hockey iq but more that Kane had some of the best hockey sense and playmaking of any player that's entered the league since 2007.

This is false. Bedard's hockey IQ is just as elite as Kane's or anyone else in the league with elite IQ.

 

[sr edler]

Him scoring all those boatloads of point against Germany and Austria in the WJC, but then going relatively quiet against the better teams in the same tourney, was a bit of a warning sign to me. Not necessarily a sign that he will be a lousy player or even a mediocre player, because god knows there are nuances to life, but a sign that perhaps the hype train was yodelling just a little bit too hard at times.

 

[sr edler]

Speaking of lousy teammates, Bedard's IMO got a better supporting cast, offensively speaking at least, than Ovechkin in his rookie year, but young Ovechkin was just a force of nature. Bedard is more a force of TikTok. Teräväinen and Bertuzzi aren't world beaters but not AHL calibre level either like some people here pretend.

 

[hirawl]

This is false. Bedard's hockey IQ is just as elite as Kane's or anyone else in the league with elite IQ.

Playing dumb af kind of contradicts the high hockey IQ.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

...far too many of the Controller Disconnected moments...he needs a voice in ChiTown that will ride his arse when he does this shyte...

 

[Pancakes]

This is false. Bedard's hockey IQ is just as elite as Kane's or anyone else in the league with elite IQ.

I can't say I agree. Kane hockey iq was elite even by elite player standards.

Bedard has an elite hockey iq but I don't think it's as next level as Kanes was

What about Tavares as a Bedard comp?

Both were ridiculous goal scorers at the junior level and got some major hype predraft.

Both suffer from slow boots.

Maybe? Tavares seems grittier to me and Bedard plays more of a skill game. Like Tavares in his prime was crazy good around the net which I don't think is going to be what Bedards game ends up being.

 

[CanadianHawks]

The Sharks are doing it all right with Celebrini, building around him with the right players and mentality, letting them all grow and learn together.

Chicago is just assembling random castoffs and trade deadline fodder around Bedard with seemingly no real plan in place for him, just expecting him to do it all.

Yes and no. SJ has a much better forward core around Cellebrini. The Hawks current roster upfront is laughable

Chicago has also focused on drafting D, which take a lot longer than development of forwards. SJ could be stuck in good but not great territory like the Leafs if they don’t get Scheffer here. Hawks are pretty loaded on the backend prospect wise. It’s a different rebuild. I would prefer to build around D.

 

[CanadianHawks]

Speaking of lousy teammates, Bedard's IMO got a better supporting cast, offensively speaking at least, than Ovechkin in his rookie year, but young Ovechkin was just a force of nature. Bedard is more a force of TikTok. Teräväinen and Bertuzzi aren't world beaters but not AHL calibre level either like some people here pretend.

TT is pretty mediocre man. He’s the same guy he was when we traded him in 2016-17. Weak on the boards, disappears for long portions, he’s a terrible fit to play with Bedard

He plays well on PP and as a third line role

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

Bedard also has amazing hands and all world vision and IQ. All of those he does better than Hughes.

I'm not convinced he has Hughes beat in any of those attributes. I'd probably argue its basically a wash. He certainly hasn't demonstrated his all world vision and IQ in the NHL, anyway.

I'm willing to be swayed of course, but I'd expect someone with all world vision and IQ to have higher assist totals.

 

[sr edler]

he’s a terrible fit to play with Bedard

A player billed as Bedard shouldn't have to have a "fit" regarding line-mates but should more or less be able to play with anyone and still come as advertised. That's the bar, unless you want to lower the bar.

 

[shakes the clown]

I'm not convinced he has Hughes beat in any of those attributes. I'd probably argue its basically a wash. He certainly hasn't demonstrated his all world vision and IQ in the NHL, anyway.

I'm willing to be swayed of course, but I'd expect someone with all world vision and IQ to have higher assist totals.

you obviously just look at stats and haven't watched him play. He demonstrates his IQ and vision every game with no look area passes that end up right on a teammate's stick. Often these are in the neutral zone or exiting the defensive zone so you're hardly going to see them appear on an assist tracker.

Also playing with plugs has limited his assists in the O zone so another reason you can't just point to his assist totals as a way to claim he doens't have high IQ

 

[SimpleJack]

Him scoring all those boatloads of point against Germany and Austria in the WJC, but then going relatively quiet against the better teams in the same tourney, was a bit of a warning sign to me. Not necessarily a sign that he will be a lousy player or even a mediocre player, because god knows there are nuances to life, but a sign that perhaps the hype train was yodelling just a little bit too hard at times.

Right agreed. And the thing is this has already been said by now over and over and over and over and over…..he’s not McDavid/Crosby. Everyone should understand this by now. And Bedard shouldnt be knocked on for those comparisons, it’s not like he himself declared those things. Not his fault that the pundits and predictions weren’t entirely accurate.

He’s IMO closer to Patrick Kane if we’re talking eventually ceiling. Which is outstanding if true. And so far he’s coming along just fine. Actually IMO he’s slightly ahead of where Kane was at the same age.

 

[Sinbad]

Anyone who had Bedard pencilled in as a 100 point player at this point in his career, well the failing is yours not his. You obviously neglected to look at the lack of talent he had to work with in Chicago.

As Gretzky himself said the reward for being the best draft eligible player in the world is you get drafted by the worst team. The obvious reason for being the worst team is because you have a lack of talent…. However, on 2nd thought that is apparently not that obvious to some self proclaimed hockey experts on this site.

This will definitely be one of those threads that gets bumped in the future and all of those Bedard detractors will no doubt stand up and acknowledge their ignorance.

On another note it is interesting that many poster constantly question Bedard’s defensive game which I agree needs work, they point to his +/- (-23 as of today) as supportive information for their argument. Many of those same people declare Celebrini a far more “complete and two-way player” and yet they surprisingly they never reference his -21 to support this position… hmmm, interesting in deed!