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| Connor Bedard jets up ice for the Pats in a game in April. |
Since the start of the current season, there has been no end to the speculation that the Pats should trade the phenom centre for what would be a massive haul of players and WHL Prospects Draft selections. That speculation has increased due to the fact the Pats appear to be your typical middle of the road post-season team.
Without Bedard on Friday night, the Pats downed the Raiders in Prince Albert 3-2 for third straight win to improve to 15-12-1-1.
Bedard, who is the Pats captain, is a generational talent and was one of a handful of players to be granted exceptional player status to play in the major junior ranks at age 15.
During an abbreviated 2020-21 regular season, Bedard at age 15 suited up in 15 games for the Pats posting 12 goals, 16 assists and a plus-nine rating in the plus-minus category. The 2020-21 campaign was an abbreviated one due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.
In 105 career regular season contests with the Pats, Bedard has recorded 90 goals, 102 assists and a plus-23 rating. He is currently at the selection camp for Canada’s world junior team and is pretty much a lock to be on that squad again to play in the world juniors that start December 26 and run through to January 5, 2023 in Halifax, N.S., and Moncton, N.B.
Bedard, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 185 pounds, helped Canada win gold at the last world juniors that were held this past August in Edmonton. He is the consensus pick to be selected first overall in the next NHL Entry Draft, which will be held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, from June 28 to 29.
Following the first overall selection, Bedard will be signed to an NHL entry-level contract and be playing in the NHL full time as an 18-year-old. Only something unforeseen would see that chain of events not play out.
Bedard handles himself so well on and off the ice with a maturity seemingly beyond his years that one tends to forget the North Vancouver, B.C., product is still 17-years-old. He isn’t old enough to vote in a political election or have an alcoholic drink legally.
Yet, it seems people already expect him to be Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, when they were in their prime as NHL players. At the moment, Bedard is still technically an amateur hockey player. While Bedard has a tonne of maturity for his age, he still deserves to have some leeway to be your typical 17-year-old who is finishing a final year of high school.
When Bedard met the media in Regina on Wednesday before departing for the selection camp of Canada’s world junior team, he said he wanted to remain with the Pats and play the entirety of his junior hockey career in Regina. Right there, that should be the end of the story.
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| Connor Bedard has 192 points in 105 career WHL regular season games. |
Following the 2017-18 season, the WHL put in rules that teams aren’t allowed to trade 15-or-16-year-old players who have signed WHL contracts. The only time a 17-year-old player will be allowed to be traded is if that player requests a trade.
The 17-year-old player will have to approach the team’s general manager to ask for a trade, and a team won’t be able to make the first move asking a 17-year-old player to waive his no trade clause.
The rule changes were made in response to the large number of trades that were made involving younger players leading to the WHL’s trade deadline of January 10, 2018. There were cases where 15-year-old players were being dealt before they had a chance to play a regular season game with the club that originally drafted them.
The spirit of the rules were to allow those players the chance to play with the team that drafted them and not have to worry about changing schools, while they were still in high school. The request for trade provision was put in to allow players who felt they were slipping through the cracks with regards to a lack of playing time to get a fresh start with a new club. A reality of junior hockey is that happens.
There are fans out there that believe somehow Bedard should be convinced that he wants to be traded to a club that is viewed to be a contender for the WHL championship and a CHL title, which is awarded to the winner of the Memorial Cup tournament. Often talk involves Bedard being moved to the Memorial Cup hosting Kamloops Blazers, the WHL leading Winnipeg Ice, Red Deer Rebels, Portland Winterhawks or Seattle Thunderbirds.
There are some fans that say if Bedard doesn’t want to be traded to a contender that has a major shot to win a Memorial Cup that there is something wrong with him and maybe he shouldn’t be the first overall selection in the NHL Entry Draft.
Once again, Bedard is 17-years-old and he is still not a professional hockey player at the moment. If he wants to remain with the Pats, that should be the end of the story.
He should be allowed to be a 17-year-old in some ways, because he will have lots of time in his life to deal with the business aspect of hockey. As a generational talent, it is unlikely he will be passed up as the first selection of the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
Back on November 30, Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock got old school confrontational and testy with the media in Kamloops regarding questions about trading Bedard. Once it was clear Bedard wasn’t going to be traded, things calmed down and he had a pretty good discussion with the media.
Frankly, Paddock should have the freedom to go the old school route of being confrontational and testy with the media if he believes that is what is needed if Bedard doesn’t want to be traded and that question comes up. Over the years, Paddock has often been viewed by former players as the best coach they’ve ever hard, and Bedard is fortunate to have Paddock as his junior head coach and general manager.
With the way the WHL trade rules are, the only exception that could come up with the trading of a younger player would be to deal them to their hometown club, if their parent is dealing with a critical illness. Back in the 2006-07 season, then Pats general manager Brent Parker and then Saskatoon Blades head coach and general manager Lorne Molleken made one of the classiest trades ever involved left-winger and Saskatoon product Derek Hulak, who was 16-years-old at the time.
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| Connor Bedard said he wants to stay with the Pats. |
If that type of situation came up again, you can be sure WHL office and the league’s member teams wouldn’t stand in the way of that type of trade being made to help a player off the ice.
In Bedard’s case, he doesn’t have to deal with anything like that. If his heart is set on staying with the Pats, that is the team he should be rejoining once his time with Canada’s entry at the upcoming world juniors concludes. That would also show the WHL’s current trade rules are doing what they are supposed to be doing too.
Benson nets first hat trick in Ice win,
other notes
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| Zach Benson had a hat trick for the Ice on Friday. |
On Friday night playing before 1,621 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena in Winnipeg, the 17-year-old centre recorded his first career WHL hat trick. Benson also picked up an assist as the Ice, who are rated third in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, doubled up the visiting Spokane Chiefs 6-3.
On the season, Benson, who is eligible for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, leads the Ice in scoring with 43 points coming on 18 goals and 25 assists to go with a plus-26 rating in the plus-minus department in 27 games.
Conor Geekie had a pair of goals and an assist for the Ice, while import centre Vladislav Shilo potted a single into an empty net for the Winnipeg side.
Tommaso De Luca had a pair of goals for the Chiefs, while Carter Streek had a single.
Daniel Hauser made 25 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Ice, who top the WHL’s overall standings with a 24-4 mark. Cooper Michaluk turned away 38-of-43 shots for the Chiefs, who fell to 5-19-0-1.
The Chiefs return to action on Saturday, when they travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings (11-15-3).
The Ice get back at it on Sunday, when they host the Pats.
- The Moose Jaw Warriors hammered the visiting Calgary Hitmen 9-2 on Friday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Import left-winger Martin Rysavy had a huge night for the Warriors recording two goals, three assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department.
- Tyson Greenway scored 21 seconds into overtime as the Tri-City Americans slipped past the visiting Prince George Cougars 4-3 at the Toyota Centre in Kennewick, Wash. The Cougars led 3-1 early in the third period, before the Americans rallied back to take the game. Netminder Ty Young turned away 48 shots to take the setback in goal for the Cougars.
- On Friday, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature on University of Saskatchewan Huskies place kicker and punter David Solie, who recently signed with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. Solie has worked at the Complex for a number of years and made a tonne of good relationships there over that time. The piece on Solie can found by clicking right here. I also created a photo roundup that focuses on showing the Indoor Training Centre getting into its busy season, and that piece can be found by clicking right here.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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