No, "anyone paying attention" did not agree Jack Hughes was going to be an elite player after his first two seasons in the league. He struggled mightily his rookie year and got better toward the end of his second season, but it was far from certain he'd become anywhere close to the player he is today. Pretending otherwise is just as delusional as your statement that "I think we can all agree Bedard is definitely not generational," but from the other direction.
And yes, this type of discussion is extremely common, and of course you're not forcing anyone to do anything, no one said you were. I have literally no idea what you're talking about in your post.
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Meanwhile, the main point of my post was that "In five to ten years no one will care how Bedard's 19 year old sophomore season went. Kind of like no one cares how Jack Hughes' 19 year old sophomore season went." And if anyone would unironically be in a position to understand the ups and downs of a young player's development, it'd be a Devils fan because you've just seen this firsthand with Jack Hughes. Instead you're doing the opposite and pretending like a 7 game pointless streak or his relative point total compared to his teammates is some foolproof predictor of what Bedard will eventually become. It isn't.