Enjoy Bedard phenom while it is still in WHL

Pats centre a generational player in final major junior season

Connor Bedard leads the WHL with 59 points this season.

“We need to tank for Bedard.”

At some point this season, there have likely been fans of every team in the NHL that has thought, said or written that line. Even if an NHL club is occupying first place in a division, all it takes is a skid as small as two games to get at least one supporter in that club’s fan base to have that thought cross his or her mind.

If the NHL club is one of the circuit’s seven Canadian franchises, a sizable group of fans will be thinking that thought, and that group gets even larger if the Canadian club they are supporting is struggling. All of sudden, you have some fans who hope their team immediately rolls off a 50-game losing streak to have a better chance to gain the first overall selection in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. The odds of a team winning the NHL draft lottery to get the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft increase the worse that club does in the regular season.

Of course, the big prize for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft for the team that is bad enough is 17-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard, who is currently the captain of the WHL’s Regina Pats. Bedard is a true generational talent, who was the first player to be granted exceptional status to play in the WHL full time as a 15-year-old.

Now in his third season in the major junior ranks, Bedard, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 185 pounds, leads the WHL in goals (26), assists (33) and points (59) appearing in all of the Pats 27 regular season games to date. The North Vancouver, B.C., product, who has a plus-12 rating in the plus-minus department, was held pointless in the Pats first game of the current campaign and has proceeded to register at lead one point in each of the 26 contests that have followed.

Bedard’s latest body of work was a two-goal performance in a 5-1 Pats victory against the Cougars in Prince George on Friday that allowed the Regina side to improve to 13-12-1-1. Just 20 seconds into the second period with the Pats holding a 2-1 edge, Bedard came down the right-wing on a power play rush, toe dragged the puck closer into his body and snapped a shot between the legs of Cougars defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk and blocker side on Cougars netminder Ty Young for his first goal of the contest.

Connor Bedard has made frequent highlight reel clips.

At the 13:12 mark of the third period, Bedard entered the Cougars zone on a rush down the left wing, stopped top of the left faceoff circle and roofed home a shot to the right corner of the Prince George net for his second tally of the contest to give the Pats a 4-1 advantage. Bedard could have had at least four more markers in that contest, but Young made some big saves to limit the Pats superstar to a two-goal night.

Bedard’s appearance drew a crowd of 6,027 spectators to the 5,971 seat CN Centre in Prince George. The attendance was by far the largest gathering the Cougars attracted all season and well above their average attendance of 2,818 spectators for the 13 home dates they’ve hosted.

The win over the Cougars completed road tour for the Pats where they played each of the five teams in the B.C. Division posting a 4-1 mark. The first two games in Vancouver and Victoria were sellouts, and the contests held in Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George were well into standing room and well above this season’s average attendance in each centre.

That is part of the crazy that comes with Bedard playing what will inevitably be his final campaign in the major junior ranks. When the next NHL Entry Draft is held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, from June 28 to 29, 2023, Bedard is the consensus choice to be selected first overall.

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.

From the start of the 2022-23 campaign, NHL fans and the media that covers the NHL seem to be keeping closer tabs on what Bedard is doing with the Pats as he is eligible for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. It is common to see Bedard’s name trend on social media lines like Twitter seemingly every third day.

Connor Bedard brings a bigger spotlight to the games he plays in.

Frequently, a Bedard highlight that results in a goal will pop up on social media and receive a large number of shares. Often, that highlight finds its way on the national broadcasts for TSN’s Sportscentre or Sportsnet’s Sports Central.

Junior hockey highlights are not a normal staple on those shows unless the world junior tournament is on, and Bedard highlights have made those shows on a regular basis this season. There are a few times NHL followers will notice another good player in games that Bedard skates in, but it often feels like an overshadow aspect is still there.

Take the Pats visit to Winnipeg to play the Ice back on November 17. The Ice, who sit first overall in the WHL with a 23-4 mark, downed the Pats 9-5 that night, and Winnipeg star 18-year-old centre Matthew Savoie had three goals, three assists and a plus-two rating in that contest.

Just 10 seconds into that game, Bedard intercepted an Ice pass at centre ice, broke into the Winnipeg zone, undressed and skated around an Ice defenceman, deked out Ice netminder Mason Beaupit and tucked home a goal to complete the highlight reel play. Bedard finished with a goal and two assists in that outing.

There were people who don’t normally follow the WHL notice that Savoie, who was the first round selection NHL Entry Draft held this past July by the Buffalo Sabres, was a pretty good player. Still, it seemed like the video from Bedard’s goal that night was shared seemingly everywhere, and Savoie’s big night didn’t get anywhere near that attention.

Another player that gets noticed quite a bit due to playing on the same team as Bedard is left-winger Tanner Howe, who turned 17-years-old on November 28. In 98 career regular season games with the Pats, Howe has 45 goals, 62 assists and a plus-nine rating. The Prince Albert product has 17 goals, 19 assists and a plus-nine rating in 26 appearances this season with the Pats.

Connor Bedard packed rinks in a tour of the B.C. Division.

Howe picked up a WHL player of the week nod for the week ending November 27 for collecting five goals and two assists in the Pats first two stops on their tour of the B.C. Division. That included posting four goals, two assists and a plus-six rating in the Pats 9-5 victory over the Royals in Victoria on November 26. Bedard had three goals, one assist and a plus-six rating in that victory.

Howe actually isn’t eligible for the NHL Entry Draft until 2024 due to his late in the year birthday. Thanks to playing with Bedard, more NHL followers are aware of Howe than they normally would be.

In the grand scheme of things, the endless hype around Bedard has caused more people than normal to pay attention to the Pats and the WHL. That attention will go away, when Bedard is no longer playing in the WHL.

Actually, the WHL will lose some attention for about the last two thirds of the month of December through the first week of January when the IIHF’s world junior hockey tournament is on. The upcoming world juniors start on December 26 and run through to January 5, 2023 in Halifax, N.S., and Moncton, N.B.

Bedard will be skating with Canada’s entry at that event and at selection camp and practices with Canada in the two weeks leading up to that tourney.

When the world juniors conclude, Bedard will jet through his final stretch in the major junior ranks. The Bedard hype train in the WHL has a finite time limit, so it would be prudent to enjoy it while it is still going on.

Connor Bedard, left, enjoys a goal celebration with the Pats.

Come next year at this time, you will likely have to play $300 or more just to get in a rink to see Bedard play in the NHL.

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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