On Sunday afternoon, the Blackhawks came in with their heads hung low. They had lost five straight games, including a gross performance against the Predators on Friday. Their lack of energy showed early, going down 3-0 to the Ducks after 10 minutes (having given up two goals in the first 47 seconds).
But then Connor Bedard happened.
As he’s done a few times over the course of his young career, he flipped a switch early on, putting the team on his back and putting up two goals and two assists, including a sweet puck handling play off of a turnover. He willed Chicago to a much-needed 5-3 win.
With four points on the night, he recorded his fifth career game of 4+ points, placing him eighth on the all-time NHL list among players age 20 or younger (Wayne Gretzky had 40 somehow, but that’s besides the point). He now finds himself in a tie for second in the entire NHL with 37 points, trailing only Nathan MacKinnon. He also won eight of 12 faceoffs, and the Olympics in a few months seem like a must at this point.
Naturally, after the latest in a long string of elite games this year for Bedard, the internet is talking about him as one of the best skaters in the entire NHL. That’s not a surprise simply based on his production so far.
It doesn’t seem like a huge stretch to consider him a top-10 player at this point. Sure, he may not quite be on the level of McDavid, MacKinnon, Makar, or Kucherov just yet (nobody expects him to be). But he’s certainly one of the most valuable players to his team in the entire NHL, and one of the most prolific scorers at this point.
The impressive part is that he’s doing this with Ryan Greene and Tyler Bertuzzi as his linemates. That isn’t to discredit either of them—I’m a firm believer that Bertuzzi is vital to this team’s success, and Greene has been a pleasant surprise this year. But it’s hard to compare Bedard’s game to that of someone like MacKinnon, who shares his top line with Artturi Lehkonen and Martin Necas. He’s doing more with less, which makes him even more valuable.
We can go back and forth all year about where Bedard slots into the top 10 skaters in the NHL, but the fact that we’re having these conversations already is a massive win for the Blackhawks. If he’s competing with these veteran superstars to be the face of the league at age 20, what conversations will we be having when he’s 22?
