Comparing Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Connor Bedard: Dominating the Draft and Rookie Seasons

2023-09-27 15:54:21

In his year of eligibility for the draft, in 2004-2005, Sidney Crosby amassed 168 points, including 66 goals, in 62 games with the Rimouski Océanic. Connor McDavid scored 120, including 44 goals, but in only 47 games with the Erie Otters, in the Ontario Junior League, in 2014-2015.

Published at 11:54 a.m.

The Chicago Blackhawks’ 2023 first overall pick, Connor Bedard, falls into this very select group. He totaled 143 points, including 71 goals, in 57 games with the Regina Pats. His outrageous domination at the World Junior Championship, 23 points in just seven games, adds to his glory.

Other first overall picks, Alexis Lafreniere, Nico Hischier, Taylor Hall, Nail Yakupov, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Steven Stamkos, did not fall into this category. John Tavares was approaching. Patrick Kane might aspire to it.

What to expect from Bedard in his first season with the Blackhawks? In his rookie year, surrounded by late-stage veterans like John LeClair, Mark Recchi and Zigmund Palffy, Crosby amassed 102 points.

But the Penguins had a lousy club and finished 29th overall. In January, exasperated, Michel Therrien castigated his troops: “I believe that they want to constitute the worst defense in the National League and they are doing an extraordinary job to do so. »

Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal would join the Penguins the following season, Sidney Crosby had his best career offensive season with 120 points and Pittsburgh qualified for the playoffs for the first time in five years, never to miss them once more until 2023.

McDavid was injured in his 13th game of the season in early December. He returned to the game in February. He had 48 points in 45 games, a production of 87 points prorated over a full season. He played with Taylor Hall and a certain Anton Slepyshev during his baptism, but he quickly disappeared from circulation. We’re still looking for a right winger eight years later, but that doesn’t stop McDavid from playing in the backyard of Gretzky and Lemieux.

The Oilers’ first pick in 2015 would reach the 100-point mark the following year, during which the Oilers managed to make the playoffs and even make it past the first round. Edmonton missed them the next two years, but has qualified every spring since 2020 and won three rounds the last two years.

Bedard and McDavid might have something in common. Barring injury, they will have played their first career game with Taylor Hall. He was released by the Bruins to free up space on the payroll and has been Bedard’s regular winger since the start of training camp in Chicago, the other being Ryan Donato, who has center dreamed of obtaining a first season of more than 31 career points…

The Blackhawks are at least as bad as the Penguins and Oilers were when their respective prodigies arrived. Another season in the cellar of the ranking should allow them to obtain another advantageous choice in the draft, to enlarge the core of young people made up for the moment of Bedard, Lukas Reichel, Kevin Korchinski.

May they have a luckier hand than Pittsburgh and Edmonton. In 2006, the Penguins held the second overall pick. As they already had two brilliant young offensive centers, they preferred to opt for a big, more defensive center, Jordan Staal, ahead of Jonathan Toews and Nicklas Backstrom.

The Oilers slipped from second to fourth following the 2016 lottery, following seeing Columbus and Winnipeg win the second and third lots. Auston Matthews was chosen by the Maple Leafs in first place, Patrik Laine by the Jets in second place and the Blue Jackets caused some surprise by selecting Pierre-Luc Dubois ahead of Finnish winger Jesse Puljujarvi.

Edmonton jumped at the chance to land Puljujarvi, highly rated at the time with 17 points in seven games at the World Junior Championship. GM Ken Holland got rid of Puljujarvi a year ago following six inconclusive seasons.

Staal and Puljujarvi obviously do not fall into the same category. The first has 1,173 career games in the NHL. We traded him too early, and got too little, but above all missed the opportunity to get our hands on a Toews or a Backstrom.

That did not prevent these two groups from gaining momentum over the following decade. But to the Blackhawks, we nevertheless wish a more fruitful harvest in 2024…

Connor Bedard and the Hawks play a first preparatory game once morest the Blues on Thursday evening. He will be at the Bell Center to face the Canadian in his third career match, on Saturday, October 14 for CH’s local opener.

No discomfort in St. Louis it seems

PHOTO GODOFREDO A. VÁSQUEZ, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS

Defender Torey Krug

Defenseman Torey Krug had a positive speech in his first steps at St. Louis Blues camp. He was keen to stay with the team and hopes to turn it around quickly following a poor season last year.

He will have to be morally strong, or have a voluntary memory lapse, to forget the fact that the Blues management concluded a trade involving him in June with the Flyers.

Krug, 32, still four years under contract at $6.5 million annually, would have moved to Philadelphia for another left-handed defenseman, Travis Sanheim, 27, in the first season of an eight-year deal valued at $6.2 million. signed in October 2022 under the authority of deposed CEO Chuck Fletcher. Krug aborted the deal under his no-trade clause.

Coach Craig Berube says he took it upon himself to clean up the mess this summer, in this interview with NHL. com.

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