Projected top draft pick Connor Bedard, along with 105 of his fellow draft prospects, completed the week-long NHL Draft Combine Saturday, and it’s safe to say Bedard lived up to his reputation.
With the Blackhawks all but guaranteed to select Bedard first overall at the end of the month, many headlines were unsurprisingly tied to Chicago. For starters, the team officially met with him in Buffalo. While Bedard also held meetings with a few other teams, it’s clear that the Blackhawks’ was the most notable.
”I met them last summer once and then to see them again here was good. We had some conversations with them of course. I enjoyed that, getting to know them and what not. It was good, I had fun with it.”
- Connor Bedard
According to GM Kyle Davidson, test scores are practically worthless at the NHL Combine. They’re something to watch, but they won’t really affect the top of the draft board at all in late June.
Size may not matter for a generational talent like Bedard, but it’s worth noting that he measured in at 5’ 9.75”, 185 lbs. And he looked huge. The league’s top prospect and his two cannons for arms tested decently well on some of the drills, but nobody seemed to take any stock in it. Translation - he could’ve shown up in jeans and smoked a cigar in the corner of the arena. He’s still going #1.
Bedard has stayed remarkably humble throughout this whole process, and seems to be saying all the right things. He was asked about the idea of going to Chicago, and he spoke as if he had just as good of a chance as any other prospect:
“It'd be awesome. The history with that organization and that city with sports would be unbelievable. We'll see what happens. If they do select me, that would be a huge honor.”
- Connor Bedard
The Blackhawks aren’t done in the draft after the first overall pick, as they have six picks in the first two rounds. Davidson and his staff interviewed 65-75 players over the span of just a few days at the combine last week, and the 19th overall pick will be crucial for the team as well. When asked about the pick, Davidson said the team “has a good sense of who we like”, but that they didn’t know who was going to be there in the draft room when they made their selection. He also discussed moving both up and down on the draft board from the 19th pick, and didn’t tie his team down in any one direction.
“If you’re sitting there at 19 and there’s 5 guys you like, maybe you look to move back because you can get one of those guys…and keep banking assets. To say we’re just going to move up, that’s probably premature.”
- Kyle Davidson
The Blackhawks could use that pick in any number of different ways. After the combine, however, one thing is clear, if it wasn’t clear enough already: Bedard is a Blackhawk.
