I don't think Ethan Bear is going to be a Calder finalist with this crop. He's maybe going to play like a top 2/3 D by the end of the year, which is great for a rookie, but he's up against an instant #1 in Makar and something close to that in Quinn Hughes. In any case, that's how I'd rank them, but Bear has won my heart.
After seeing majormajor's post I need to watch Makar ASAP. Saw him in the playoffs but not since. Sounds like he's more than picked up where he left off.
I was serious about the deferential part too. He's had plays where he comes up the ice with enough speed to blow past the opposition and he passes the puck seemingly to avoid pissing off his new teammates. At UMass he would have gone all the way.
I'm saying Makar has better tools than Hughes, he has the tools to dominate the league. I'm not claiming that he will do it consistently though. Rookies usually don't have much consistency. And Makar hasn't finished much so far, he's had posts and plenty of breakaways, and I'm not assuming they'll all start going in. Finishing is a skill in itself.
Yes you need to watch him. You might have seen
this video from a couple days back. But there's a lot of little things that aren't highlight reel but also kind of stunning, at least for me as an amateur hockey player. Cale did a move last night in his end where he skated into a board battle and opened into "Crosby legs" or whatever you want to call it and made a quick arc around a four feet radius, and as he was doing that he scooped the puck out of the scrum and made a quick pass between an opponent's legs. It won't end up in a highlight package.