NHL’s Next 1? North Vancouver’s Connor Bedard hockey teen dream at 16

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Drew Sim didn’t know what to make of the Connor Bedard hype initially. The opening few minutes of their first practice together changed that. 

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We’re now 12 months out from the 2023 NHL Draft, the one in which Bedard, a 16-year-old Regina Pats centre from North Vancouver, has been the runaway favourite to go first overall for some time. 

Hockey Canada granted Bedard exceptional player status in March 2020, which meant that he could play major junior hockey on a full time basis a season earlier normal, seeing regular duty as a 15-year-old in the 2020-21 campaign. Bedard was the seventh player from across Canada to ever receive the distinction, following the ballyhooed likes of Connor McDavid, John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad.

Sim knew all of this when the Vancouver Giants traded him to the Pats on Oct. 13, 2021. The goaltender had an idea of Bedard’s skill set from the various highlight clips he had seen on television and the Internet.

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Sim had seen limited duty with Vancouver to that point. The Giants were built to contend, which meant he got practice against some notable shooters while on the main roster. That included Bowen Byram, the defenceman who saw regular, impactful ice time for the Colorado Avalanche in their just-concluded Stanley Cup run only days after his 21st birthday.

But Bedard was something different. Sim remembers that first shot from Bedard in that first practice, how quickly he released it and how much he was able to get on it. And he remembers Bedard being able to replicate that time and time again. 

“I’ve never faced someone able to shoot the puck the way he can,” Sim said. “He shoots it from inside. He shoots it from outside. He shoots with his hands in close to his body and his hands away from his body. He shoots it any way you can think of and he always gets it away quickly and with something on it. It’s a rocket every time.

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“And it’s not just shooting. I don’t think there’s anything he can’t do. The way he handles the puck, some of the passes he can make… it’s ridiculous. You could put him out there at a high-end skill session for pro guys and he wouldn’t look out of place.

“I wasn’t with the team for the first part of the year, so I wasn’t sure if the hype was true or not. It’s true.”

Seventh for Canada at age 16

Bedard, who’s trying to become the first B.C. product to go first overall in the NHL Draft since the Edmonton Oilers took Burnaby centre and Red Deer Rebels star Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the opening pick of 2011, became just the seventh player to suit up for Team Canada at the world juniors as a 16-year-old when he made the squad this past winter.

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Consider the others on that list for moment: Wayne Gretzky (1978), Eric Lindros (1989), Jason Spezza (2000), Jay Bouwmeester (2000), Sidney Crosby (2004) and McDavid (2014).

Things like that make it easy to forget that Bedard is still working towards his driver’s licence. He has his learner’s permit. 

“I don’t know. I don’t think about that too much,” Bedard said when asked if he feels 16 years of age. “I think in most people’s minds, you’re just a hockey player.”

As a hockey fan, Bedard has grown up backing the Vancouver Canucks and this past season said his favourite player on the team at the time was gritty, grinding winger Tyler Motte, the kind of player often assigned to shadow players like a Bedard at the NHL level. 

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Motte, who was a pending unrestricted free agent, was dealt to the New York Rangers at the NHL trade deadline.

“I was pretty upset at that,” Bedard said. 

Word got back to Motte that Bedard was a fan. He connected with Bedard through social media and they’ve since exchanged autographed sticks.

“I watch the Canucks all the time, and when you watch teams so much you grow to appreciate certain guys, and especially the guys that don’t always get the credit,” Bedard said. “I like the effort that he puts out every night.

“His story, with the mental health stuff, was pretty inspiring for a lot of people as well.”

And what about facing off against him one day?

“Playing anyone in the NHL is going to be cool, but it’s going to be especially cool to play someone you have a connection with,” Bedard said.

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Played in Sweden

When the COVID-19 pandemic kept the 2020-21 WHL season from starting on time, Bedard went to play in Sweden. Older sister Maddie, 19, rode shotgun on the trip.

When the WHL got going, Bedard joined the Pats and put up 12 goals and 28 points in 15 games during the COVID-19 abbreviated campaign. He missed the Pats’ final nine games playing with the Canadian Under-18 side. 

This past season, he finished fourth in the WHL in points (100), trailing a 20-year-old — Vancouver Canucks free-agent signee Arshdeep Bains led the way with 112 points for the Red Deer Rebels — as well as a 19-year-old Ben King (105) of Red Deer and 18-year-old Logan Stankoven (104) of the Kamloops Blazers.

The 5-foot-9, 181-pound, right-handed shooting Bedard was second in goals (51), one in back of King. He’s the youngest player to break the 50-goal mark in league history and the fourth 16-year-old to get to 100 points.

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For maybe even better perspective, Bedard and Moose Jaw Warriors forward Brayden Yager (34) became the third and fourth 16 year olds this season to score 30 more goals in a WHL campaign since Patrick Marleau potted 32 for the Seattle Thunderbirds in 1995-96.

Bedard reminds TSN scouting director Craig Button of Detroit Red Wings great Steve Yzerman. Pats general manager and coach John Paddock says that NHL teams have told him they liken Bedard to slick current standouts like the Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov.

Paddock understands the connection but wonders if it’s a true fit because Bedard has that pure sniper in him. He has that Alex Ovechkin aspect to him, Paddock says, pointing to the Washington Capitals’ sharpshooter.

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There does seem to be consensus that his ability to think the game is his greatest attribute.

“He processes in real time. There’s nothing he does that’s predetermined,” Button said. “If he doesn’t know what he’s going to do ahead of time, how can you know and try to match him?

“He has 360-degree awareness on the ice. He knows what’s going on with every single player out there.”

J.D. Burke, the editor-in-chief for EP Rinkside, explained: “What makes Connor Bedard such an exceptional player is his ability to sequence every part of his game at once at an unmatched pace. He’s processing developing plays and acting on them with a rapidity that few if any hockey players outside — or inside — the NHL can match. You couple that with technical skill as a passer and a potent release that he can get off from any angle at any point in the offensive zone without so much as breaking stride, and you get something really special. He’s the sport’s best, most dynamic prospect since Connor McDavid.”

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Has stood out all along

Bedard started hockey when he was four, and fell for it to the point that Tom and Melanie Bedard have a net setup in the backyard — complete with mesh to keep pucks from zipping into the neighbour’s yard — so that their son can work on his shooting at a moment’s notice.

He has stood out all along, it seems. Bedard was most valuable player of the famed Brick Invitational in Edmonton for 10 year olds in 2015 after scoring a tournament-high eight goals in six games. That same year, noted hockey skills specialist Pavel Barber, who has over 280,000 subscribers for his YouTube page, posted a clip of Bedard scoring on a breakaway.

In April 2018, the Penticton Herald wrote about how a 12-year-old Bedard, who was two years younger than the majority of the players at a prospect camp run by the BCHL’s Penticton Vees, “was among those to wow the Vees brass and scouts in attendance.”

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In November 2018, the Hockey News penned a story with the headline: Meet The Future Of Hockey, 13-Year-Old Connor Bedard.

“He put up ridiculous numbers against really good players all the way through,” said Matthew Wood, 17, the BCHL’s leading scorer with the Victoria Grizzlies this season who was a teammate of Bedard’s on that Brick Invitational and various spring teams over the years. “You could tell early on that he was a different type of player.”

All that history, Wood believes, puts Bedard in the best spot to handle all the attention that’s coming this year as the expected first overall pick in 2023. 

Wood billeted with the Bedard family when they were both playing for West Vancouver Academy. “He’s used to all of it. I don’t think anything will slow him down too much,” Wood said.

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Paddock added: “He’ll handle it. He’ll excel on the ice and be the same honest, appreciative kid that we’ve seen here the last two years. He’s a very humble kid. You have to credit his parents. I think he was brought up in a good way.”

Wants to be ‘one of the guys’

Bedard, who turns 17 on July 17, admits that “I put a lot of pressure on myself, and more than I feel from the outside.”

He also says there’s “outside noise,” with the attention he receives, but he has set his sights on doing his part to keep it out of the Regina dressing room.

“I want to be seen as one of the guys,” he said.

Hockey Canada director of player personnel Alan Millar believes that Bedard is capable of handling it all this coming year. Millar was still general manager of the Moose Jaw Warriors when Bedard was granted exceptional status, so he courted him through the WHL Draft process. He’s worked with him since during Bedard’s various assignments with Canadian teams.

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“He’s only young by number. He’s very mature,” Millar said. “Everything he does is very professional, with focus and purpose. I don’t see any of this being an overwhelming burden on him.”

sewen@postmedia.com

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