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| Connor Bedard star status grew at world juniors. |
That development proved the WHL’s trade rules work.
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.
What goes against those roles is trying to convince a 17-year-old phenom to be traded to get a huge return of assets.
Bedard’s presence in the WHL created the biggest challenge to those rules. Coming into the WHL for the 2020-21 season, Bedard was the first player to be granted exceptional player status to play in the WHL at age 15.
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| Connor Bedard leads the WHL in scoring |
For that event co-hosted in Halifax and Moncton, N.B., Bedard topped the tourney in goals (nine), assists (14), points (23) and had the best plus-minus (+13). The North Vancouver, B.C., product was named the most valuable player at world juniors along with picking up accolades being named the event’s best forward and a tournament all-star.
His tallies for assists and points were new Canadian records for a single world juniors along with setting a new record for points in a tournament by any player aged 18 or younger. In 16 career games played at world juniors, Bedard set new Canadian career records at the event for goals (16) and points (36).
On WHL trade deadline day, Bedard was leading the league in scoring, and the Pats sat seventh overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference holding the conference’s second last playoff position, if the regular season ended that day.
Before leaving to join Canada’s world junior team, Bedard spoke to the media in Regina on December 7, 2022, and he said he wanted to remain with the Pats and play the entirety of his junior hockey career in Regina. Right there, that should have been the end of the story on the trade front.
Still, that didn’t seem to be enough for way too many WHL fans, WHL followers and media types who cover hockey at both the junior and professional levels. Chatter on social media and sports talk shows was that Bedard should be traded to a team near the top of the WHL’s overall standings that was in better position to contend for a league title and the CHL championship trophy - the Memorial Cup - for a king’s ransom of assets.
Often, those comments came with complete silence over the rules regarding trading high school aged players in the WHL.
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| Connor Bedard was the MVP of world juniors. |
There were people who thought Pats management should be unscrupulous and convince Bedard he needed to be traded to a club at or near the top of the WHL overall standings to get a massive haul in assets and that the WHL office should look the other way when this all goes down. Due to the fact numerous unscrupulous things go down in all walks of life these days, there were people who believed that Bedard would be traded hook or crook.
Those types of talks or thoughts speak more about the people who envisioned things going down in an unscrupulous manner as opposed to Bedard and Paddock.
In Bedard’s short career in hockey and the seemly the six decades long career in the game of the 68-year-old Paddock, both have been straight shooters. It could be argued that Paddock is as straight of a shooter as you will ever find in the game of hockey.
Bedard wanted to remain with the Pats and the spirit of the rules in the WHL with regards to trading 17-year-old players was respected. This was a big win for the league, because it shows the rules that were put in place work.
Following Friday’s action in the WHL, the Pats sport a 20-19-1-1 and still sit seventh overall in the Eastern Conference. Bedard still leads the WHL in scoring totally 75 points coming off 34 goals and 41 assists to go with a plus-21 rating in 30 appearances with the Pats.
On Friday, NHL Central Scouting’s Mid-Term Rankings were released, and Bedard was listed as the top prospect among North American skaters for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, which will be held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, from June 28 to 29. Barring something unforeseen, Bedard will be the first player selected in that draft.
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| Connor Bedard is likely skating in his final months as a WHLer. |
If Bedard is able to do that, it might go down as a bigger accomplishment than Lionel Messi willing Argentina to a World Cup title in soccer, which is known as football outside of Canada and the United States, this past December.
Over the long term, the Pats will reap benefits as being the only junior team Bedard played for before joining the NHL.
Overall, the right thing happened, when Bedard remained a member of the Pats at the WHL trade deadline. Again, fans of all type should get out to the rink and enjoy the Bedard phenom while it is still in the WHL.
Bedard bashes Blades in Pats 7-4 win
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| Connor Bedard, right, had five points for the Pats on Friday. |
The Regina Pats 17-year-old phenom centre had another spectacular night as the Pats posted a 7-4 victory over the visiting Saskatoon Blades on Friday night. Bedard recorded a hat trick that including the winning goal, two assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department in the Pats victory, which saw a season high crowd of 5,651 spectators turn out at the Brandt Centre.
With the five-point outburst, Bedard was able to surpass 200 career regular season points during his time in the WHL. In 107 career regular season games, Bedard has 97 goals and 106 assists for 203 points to go with a plus-30 rating.
Zack Stringer, Steel Quiring, Braxton Whitehead and Borya Valis all netted singles for the Pats. Czech import defenceman Stanislav Svozil collected four assists for Regina.
Trevor Wong, Egor Sidorov, Brandon Lisowsky and Tanner Molendyk replied with singles for the Blades. Wong has a pair of assists to go with his goal.
Drew Sim stopped 21 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Pats (20-19-1-1). Ethan Chadwick turned away 18-of-25 shots taking the setback in net for the Blades (26-8-2-1).
The two sides were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes, and the Pats held a 3-2 advantage after two periods.
The Pats return to action when they host the Portland Winterhawks (28-7-2-1) at 7 p.m. at the Brandt Centre.
The Blades are back at it on Saturday when they host the WHL leading Seattle Thunderbirds (30-6-1-1) at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
Thunderbirds slip past spirited Raiders 3-2
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| Ryder Ritchie had a pair of assists for the Raiders on Friday. |
On Friday night playing in front of a standing room crowd of 2,602 spectators at the 2,580 Art Hauser Centre, the Thunderbirds gutted out a 3-2 victory against a host Raiders squad that put in a spirited effort. Allan, who is a 19-year-old alternate captain with the Thunderbirds, started the current season as the Raiders captain before being dealt to Seattle in a blockbuster trade on November 16, 2022.
Allan appeared in seven regular season games for the Raiders in their 2018-19 WHL championship season as an associate player call up before joining the club full time in 2019-20. In 162 career regular season games with the Raiders, Allan recorded 14 goals, 49 assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department.
The Davidson product, who helped Canada win gold at this past world juniors, was held without a point on Friday but was still named the game’s third star.
Overage star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic netted his 20th goal of the season and recorded an assist to pace the Thunderbirds. Brad Lambert and Jordan Gustafson recorded singles for Seattle.
Lambert, who is a centre from Finland, was playing in his first career WHL game after being assigned to the Thunderbirds by the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets. He had been playing with the Jets AHL affiliate in the Manitoba Moose.
Niall Crocker and Sloan Stanick replied for the Raiders. Ryder Ritchie, who is a 16-year-old rookie left-winger, picked up assists on both Prince Albert goals. In 33 appearances with the Raiders, Ritchie has 11 goals and 14 assists.
Thomas Milic stopped 26 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Thunderbirds (30-6-1-1). Max Hildebrand turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders (14-23-3).
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the two sided were tied 1-1 after the second before the Thunderbirds squeaked out the victory.
The Raiders hit the road to take on the Oil Kings (6-34-1) on Saturday in Edmonton (7 p.m. local time, Rogers Place).
The Thunderbirds are also back in action on Saturday as they take on the Blades (26-8-2-1) in Saskatoon (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).
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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