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Predicting Points For Connor Bedard |
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Connor Bedard is a Blackhawk and fans of the team and of hockey in general are curious to see what the potential generational player will do in his first year in the NHL. Today I sit down with Jacob Billington and Karine Hains to predict Bedard's rookie season numbers.
Sean Maloughney
I have no doubts that Bedard is going to end up being one of the better players in the NHL. That being said the Hawks quite frankly have a brutal lineup and no veteran ability to help insulate the young phenom. When McDavid entered the league the team also had RNH, a full time centre at that stage in his career to shelter his minutes. McDavid played on a second line with Pouliot and Yakupov while RNH centred Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle.
Bedard now gets to play with Hall himself. Hall is coming off a 36 point season where he played on a dominant Bruins roster. Hall is still a legitimate top six forward but far removed from his Hart winning season. Reichel meanwhile has some great upside but this is a 21 year old with a total of 34 games under his belt. Asking this trio to play the toughest competition night in and night out is a recipe for disaster.
That will be the line that every opponent focuses on because a second line of Athanasiou, Tyler Johnson, and Taylor Raddysh isn't going to be putting the fear into anyone either. Throw in a mediocre defense and a goalie tandem of Mrazek and Soderblom and the Hawks are going to be spending a ton of time in their own zone.
Hawks fans should still be ecstatic they get to watch this player for years to come and I'm sure we will see plenty of highlights from the kid this season. That being said I am looking at 30-35-65 as a reasonable baseline for the young centre.
Jacob Billington
Connor Bedard is going to be in a great position to succeed in Chicago. He will more than likely have Taylor Hall on one of his wings, and Lukas Reichel on the other. All three of these players have good offensive upside, and could work really well together. Some of the best rookie seasons we have seen lately have been Auston Matthews (40 goals in 82 games)), Connor McDavid (48 points in 45 games) and Mat Barzal (85 points). I expect Bedard to be around this level of dominance out of the gate.
Looking at the Blackhawks lineup, it is worse than any of the three teams those rookies played for, but with a solid top line, Seth Jones coming off of a strong back-half of last season, the possible emergence of Kevin Korchinski, there are some quality pieces that Bedard could be playing with. To give a specific prediction, I will go with 33 goals, 71 points, assuming he stays healthy for the whole season.
Karine Hains
Last season, fans of multiple teams were dreaming of winning the NHL draft lottery and coming in first in the Connor Bédard deby. The die has now been cast and the Chicago Blackhawks won the big prize. Hawks land will be lit up by a generational talent this season while fans of other teams will wonder what could have been.
How many points will the new face of the franchise be able to rack up in his rookie season? That’s a very good question…In his last year in the WHL, the prodigy took part in 57 contest and managed to gather 143 points (71 goals and 72 assists). The WHL is not the NHL though and like every young player making the jump to the pro level, Bedard will need to adapt to a new level of play.
When Connor McDavid started his NHL career, he was coming off a 120 points season with the Eerie Others of the OHL, but a broken collarbone meant that he could only take part in 45 games in his first NHL season. Over the course of those 45 contests, he gathered 48 points (16 goals and 32 assists) which meant he was a point per game player. Could Bedard manage to do it as well? I’m not entirely sure.
Unlike McDavid, Bedard comes to a team that has just started its rebuild and isn’t far into the process. Just last offseason, the Hawks went in full tank mode and got rid of some talented players, improving their odds of winning the big prize in June, which they did. That scorched earth tactic means that there aren’t that many talented players surrounding the new face of the franchise. Thankfully, they were able to get Taylor Hall for next to nothing from the Bruins and the winger is expected to ride shotgun with Bedard, but right now, his other winger is projected to be Lukas Reichel on Daily Faceoff. Reichel is only 21 years old and played 23 NHL games last year, putting up 15 points. Meanwhile, Hall was limited to 36 points in 61 games with a very strong Bruins team.
As talented as he is, Bedard is still human and like every young player, he’ll have to adapt to the NHL and he’ll do it on a weak Chicago team in the Central division. In other words, he’ll play the Avalanche, Stars and Wild often, three teams who got over 100 points last season, which means the competition won’t be weak.
Taking all this into consideration, I believe the new star of the league should get around 60 points this coming season, but that number will then go up every year and lead Bedard to rack up plenty of individual awards in a career we all hope will be spectacular.
Josh Biringer
Drafted 1st overall can be a gift and a curse. For Connor Bedard's case, he is entering his NHL career with skyscraper expectations, with comparisons of Connor McDavid and Alexander Ovechkin. Bedard's recent season saw stellar numbers in his WHL season with the Regina Pats (71G-72A-143GP in 57 GP) and Team Canada' WJC-20 gold medal run (9G-14A-23P in 7 GP). Weighing what he has achieved, his abilities, playing style, and size and the quality of the roster around him, the realistic goal for Connor Bedard would be for him to hit 60+ points. My guess, if he plays a full season, he'll hit 36G-37A-73P in 82 games.
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