Bedard's family influence helps make him likely No. 1 pick in 2023 Draft

The 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 28-29 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The first round will be June 28 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS), and rounds 2-7 are June 29 (11 a.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at center Connor Bedard with Regina of the Western Hockey League. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.

Connor Bedard had no time to spare prior to overtime with his team fighting for a playoff berth in the final month of the season.

Most players would use the brief break as a time to rest before the five-minute, 3-on-3 period.

Not Bedard. He had other intentions at a time when Regina needed a win against Red Deer on March 4 to increase the chances of qualifying for the Western Hockey League playoffs for the first time in five seasons.

"Connor took the coaches board and started drawing up plays off the face-off," said Regina right wing Borya Valis, Bedard's linemate at the time. "We're all like, 'Oh, he knows what he's doing.' After the game, Connor told us he had been thinking about that play for a week and wanted to try it.

"It was an awesome moment. I was like, 'Yeah, I guess Connor can be a player and coach.'"

The play?

"I'm not going to say because I might want to use it again," Bedard said with a grin. "But we did something similar to what I did a few years ago in midget, and I wanted to do it with the guys [in Regina]. We had talked about it that week and if we went to overtime, I was hoping to try it.

"But I lost the draw, so we couldn't do it."

He may have lost the draw, but he had the primary assist for his fourth point of the game on the game-winner. After drawing a defender to him in the left-wing corner, Bedard launched a backhand pass onto the tape of Alexander Suzdalev for the finish from the right face-off circle 55 seconds into overtime. Regina won 6-5 and ultimately was one of the eight teams to qualify for the WHL playoffs from the Eastern Conference, earning the sixth seed.

These are the moments Bedard's teammates and coaches will remember with great appreciation years from now, if they aren't doing so already.

"You're seeing right there how mature he is as a 17-year-old because usually you'll see 19- or 20-year-olds do that kind of stuff," Regina assistant coach Brad Herauf said of Bedard drawing up the play. "When you're coaching those high-level guys who have that offensive talent, you can't stifle that stuff. You have to let them be creative and be in their thoughts. When it comes to his engagement, his hockey IQ, he is way beyond his years.

"For Connor, it was just the next level of him, and I think that's the real cool part of getting to coach him this year ... he got to a point where it's like coaching a pro."

High praise for someone who hasn't played a minute of professional hockey, but Bedard (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) is no ordinary teenager with a burning desire to be successful at the game he loves.

The right-handed center has what seems like the perfect makeup for a surefire generational talent: a strong family influence, a relentless nature on the ice, a shot unlike anything seen in some time, and intelligence that sets him apart from other prospects eligible for the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft.

"He's getting the attention that [Connor McDavid] did and I think that he just continues to meet expectations," Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby said. "They're high, but you see him play and you see what he can do. I had a chance to skate with him and there's just no weaknesses. It's pretty cool to see someone at that age as dominant as he is."

Bedard has been the projected No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft for almost two seasons and is expected to go to the Chicago Blackhawks with the top choice. The Anaheim Ducks hold the No. 2 selection, and the Columbus Blue Jackets have the No. 3 pick.

He won the Canadian Hockey League Top Prospect, Top Scorer, and David Branch Player of the Year awards this season after leading the WHL in goals (71), points (143), shots on goal (360), points per game (2.51) and goals per game (1.24) in 57 games. He finished tied for the league lead in assists (72) and game-winning goals (11). No player had won all three CHL awards in the same season since the Top Scorer award was introduced in 1994.

"I obviously have a passion for hockey," Bedard said. "Expectations don't weigh on me. I've got expectations for myself, and I set them high, but I don't think the outside noise has too much effect on me when I'm playing or thinking about the game."

But how did a kid who at one time hated skating become the most highly touted draft prospect since McDavid was chosen No. 1 by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2015 NHL Draft? His upbringing is a great place to start.

The better Bedard?

Melanie Bedard, Connor's mother, remembers what it was like for her son and daughter, Madisen, growing up in North Vancouver.

"When I was pregnant with Connor, we moved into the house that we're in now ... it was a great street with lots of kids the same age with two or three families with a son and a daughter as well," she said. "So, from the time they were really young, everybody was outside on their bikes. Connor loved to be outside, loved to be playing."

At the time, Madisen was already a competitive gymnast and probably the better athlete of the two. She was the one driving Connor to become better.

"We would put a chin-up bar in our kitchen every so often, and on random days my parents would bring it out and we'd compete with each other ... it was just a little fun family activity," said Madisen, 20. "I was able to do more than him, then. I think he may have caught up to me since."

Madisen was the first person to accompany Connor on the ice for his first skate. It wasn't exactly memorable.

"I think I was 4 or 5 years old ... and I went off the ice crying because I didn't like it," Connor said.

Madisen said, "We took skating lessons at a local recreation center because my parents just wanted us to try different things and kind of learn skating basics. He hated it, but I loved it. I would kind of go all over the ice, but then, of course, when he got a puck and stick in his hands, he started to fall in love with it."

Something about the feel of the stick and how he could manipulate the puck excited Connor.

It offered him a chance to be creative on the canvas they call ice.

"Once he had that stick, that was it," Melanie said.

Exceptionally talented

Bedard was 14 years old in March 2020 when he was given an exception from B.C. Hockey in order to play three years up on the under-18 team at West Van Academy. There, he was granted exceptional player status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old in the 2020-21 season.

He was the seventh player to receive exceptional player status and first from western Canada.

"My parents kept it pretty low key ... I guess they wanted to make things as normal as possible for us at home," Madisen said. "I was so focused on gymnastics. I always knew Connor was talented in hockey, but comparing it to gymnastics, it's different. I saw it as the team he played for was doing well and he was having an impact at a younger age.

"When I stopped gymnastics, I had a bit more time and started going to a few of his games, and that was right around the time he got exceptional status. I would say at that point was when I started to notice things. He wasn't just good in this province or this town, it was different than that."

Players generally are drafted into the WHL at age 15 but can play a maximum of five games in the league at that age unless their midget team's season has ended. Bedard led the Canadian Sports School Hockey League with 84 points (43 goals, 41 assists) in 36 games in 2019-20.

Regina selected Bedard No. 1 in the 2020 WHL draft.

"Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of playing in the WHL, and Regina's the oldest franchise in the league," Bedard said. "I was in touch with coach John Paddock. I was thrilled with going to Regina, and my family was really excited too."

Sister support

Connor's start in Regina was put on hold in 2020-21 when the WHL season was delayed well past the new year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fortunately, he was given an opportunity to play in Sweden during the pause. Because Melanie and his father, Tom, were busy on the home front, Madisen stepped in to offer the support her brother needed by traveling and staying with him overseas.

"I was a nervous wreck," Melanie said. "It was the middle of a pandemic, and they were going to Europe."

Madisen, now a third-year kinesiology student at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, was entering her first year of college in Calgary. Because of the pandemic, courses were accessible online at the time.

"I was planning to move to Calgary anyway, so this gave me that experience to live away from home too," Madisen said. "It enabled Connor an opportunity to learn how to get organized. I would help with all the cooking, but his training in Sweden would start around 6 a.m., and he'd bike or walk to the arena.

"It was a great experience that will always be pretty unique and cool. Because of the eight-hour time difference, my online classes wouldn't start until almost at 10 p.m. (Sweden time) and I'd be up until about 1 a.m. That was a bit of an adjustment, but I guess you just get used to it."

Madisen told Connor that she would prepare dinner but that "breakfast was on you" because she had to get sleep at some point.

"Chicken, rice, pasta ... those foods have always kind of been our go-to, even with my mom," she said.

Connor and Madisen spent two months in Jonkoping, Sweden, before returning to western Canada. Bedard got his daily training and played five games in Sweden, including four with HV71's team in Sweden's junior league, and had four points (two goals, two assists).

He made his WHL debut on March 12, 2021, scoring twice and going 10-for-14 on face-offs in a 6-3 loss to Prince Albert.

Young leader

Bedard has always been a lead-by-example player, and that never was more prevalent than what Herauf witnessed in the bubble in 2020-21, when Regina competed in the East Division Hub in its home city.

"We just knew the power and influence he was going to have, and I'd talk to him about how his actions would matter," Herauf said. "The very first time I realized his actions had so much influence on our group was when he was 15. After every game, every practice, Connor would lay on the floor and put his legs up on the wall.

"I hadn't seen anyone do this, especially a 15-year-old, probably since when I was playing, and I'm 40 now. This was something older guys did ... lying on the floor and putting the legs up for circulation. The next day, there were seven, eight other players from our team out there doing the same thing. Within four days, our whole team, 20-year-olds ... everyone's outside the hallway with their legs up on the wall. Connor didn't tell anybody to do this."

Bedard was Regina's alternate captain in 2021-22 and was captain this season.

"He's the first guy on the ice. The last guy off," Herauf said. "He's the first guy in the gym and the last guy in the gym. He's the guy eating right, all the time. He takes his time and his preparation very seriously ... and he's 17. Connor processes everything ... it's incredible."

Paddock and Herauf agree that Bedard is the best Canadian Hockey League player they've seen.

"He's respected by young and old, and it's not from the way he says things but his actions because he continually puts more work into his game," Herauf said. "If he keeps going at this pace, this amount of time he's put into his development, it'll take kids 4-5 years to catch up because he's been doing this stuff since he's been 13.

"I've seen Mathew Barzal (New York Islanders) in a major-junior playoff series, was around Brayden Point (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Sam Steel (Minnesota Wild), and those were all 120-point players, but they were doing it at 19. Connor's doing it at 17 and that to me is why it's not even close. He's the best I've ever seen."

Paddock has spent more than five decades in hockey, including multiple stops as a player, coach and general manager in the WHL, American Hockey League and NHL. He's second in Regina history with 209 coaching victories across nine seasons.

"He's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," the 68-year-old coach said, "and I certainly have never seen a player like Connor at the junior level in my time coaching in the WHL.

"I coached Teemu Selanne in his NHL rookie year (Winnipeg Jets, 1992-93) and he scored 76 goals. Daniel Alfredsson (from 2005-08) and Zdeno Chara (2005-06) when I was with the Ottawa Senators ... they were so dialed in all the time. I see some of the traits Connor has that were also in those guys, and they're Hockey Hall of Famers. To see somebody like this at this level ... I might not be alive in 20 years when his career is over, but it'll be something."

Where the heart is

Bedard learned much about hard work by simply following the lead of his parents, sister and grandparents.

"They've been everything to me," Bedard said. "I got to give them more credit than myself on being where I am, the position I'm in, and the opportunities that I'm able to get. They all work so hard at whatever they do, and I learned so much from them."

Tom Bedard, 57, has worked as a logger his entire adult life. He started in the forest industry with his father's logging company during high school on weekends and in the summer, then began working full time at 17 when he graduated from high school.

"He's probably the hardest-working person I know," Connor said. "I mean, if you were to kind of look at what he does and compare it to what I do ... there is no comparison. He's getting up at 3 in the morning, driving four hours each way and it's a really hard, physical job. It's pretty impressive to just look at that, see what he's doing every day to provide for the family.

"My mom is dealing with all the stress of everything and is the glue to our family. 'Madi' is probably my biggest role model with everything she does and how well she handles everything."

Make no mistake, Bedard's off-ice demeanor and humbleness is a direct reflection of the family influence.

"I think I'm pretty good with people," he said. "I think my mom is really good. I feel like she's always a really good talker and everything and I think I'm good with that kind of thing too, with people and friends and helping people out a bit."

Generational giant

Bedard was the best player at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship. He led all players with 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) in seven games and was named the tournament's top forward and most valuable player in helping Canada win a second straight gold medal.

"I don't say this lightly," TSN director of scouting and NHL analyst Craig Button said. "I've watched the World Junior Championship for a long time. The last time a player performed at the level he performed, at his age (17), was in 1978 and his name was Wayne Gretzky. He was the best player in the tournament. The best player in this tournament was No. 16 (Bedard) for Canada, and it wasn't even close."

Bedard set a record for most points by a Canada player at the World Juniors, breaking the record of 18 set by Dale McCourt (1977) and Brayden Schenn (2011), and he set a single-tournament Canada record with 14 assists, two more than Jason Allison had at the 1995 WJC.

He had the fourth-most points at a WJC, behind Peter Forsberg (31 for Sweden in 1993), Markus Naslund (24 for Sweden in 1993) and Raimo Helminen (24 for Finland in 1984), and the most points in a WJC by a 17-year-old, breaking the mark of 18 set by Jaromir Jagr of Czechoslovakia in 1990.

His incredible shot was one of the major talking points of the tournament.

"I think there certainly has to be a natural ability, but it's my understanding that every day in the summer he's shot 500 to 1,000 pucks since he was about 9 years old," Paddock said. "And so, I think it's the perfect example of practice makes perfect, or close to it."

On June 19, Bedard was named the inaugural IIHF Male Player of the Year after winning three gold medals (2021 World Under-18 Championship, 2022 WJC, 2023 WJC) in less than three years.

Peter Sullivan, who specializes in scouting WHL players, has evaluated NHL Draft prospects the past 26 years with Central Scouting. He's still blown away by how dominant Bedard was at the 2023 World Juniors.

"Past players that stood out to me were Crosby, McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, but Bedard did something those guys couldn't do in the World Juniors at the same age," Sullivan said. "Seeing what he did at World Juniors was bigger than huge. But the thing is, everybody's waiting to see how it translates to the NHL. The reality is he's been doing this since he's been 9 years old.

"I know those other players did that too, but Bedard, to me, has taken it to an extra level at the same age and that's been the difference between Bedard and the rest of the players I've seen in the past."

Will Bedard be able to make significant contributions in the NHL in 2023-24?

"I think there's always going to be an adjustment period, but based on the fact he's never seen a level that he couldn't dominate, why not?" Button said. "I mean, we're talking about the best players in the world, the best league in the world. But do I think he could do it?

"Here's what I'll say: I'm not betting against Connor Bedard."

Neither are those who know him well.

"I want him to do as well as he can, but he's got to just keep things in perspective and enjoy a lot of different things," Tom Bedard said. "That's how we kind of look at it. His work ethic, he was driven, self-motivated, that's what I think you've got to kind of be. You got to want to do work without anyone taking you somewhere. Whether it's wearing a headlight lamp on your head outside, stick-handling in pouring rain in the dark or whatever, you have to kind of have that love of whatever it is you do to be decent at it."

Bedard does.

John Williams has been a part of Central Scouting since 2014 but his extensive scouting background spans 34 years, beginning with Sault Ste. Marie of the Ontario Hockey League for 10 seasons. Williams said the feeling he gets watching Bedard is similar to how he felt when he began evaluating future Hockey Hall of Fame center Eric Lindros with St. Michael's in the Metro Junior B Hockey League in 1988-89.

"I remember we went to go see Lindros as a 15-year-old, playing junior B, a really good league at the time," Williams said. "He was just physically dominant and had the skill on top of that. He would go in, play against guys five years older and was just running them out of the rink and making plays to score or set up a goal. It was just unbelievable for a kid at his age doing what he was doing. I think he was just a physical freak of nature.

"It was the same thing with McDavid, only this time it was the skating. Right now, Bedard's in that conversation with the two of them for what he does and brings to his team and that's very impressive."

Bedard is likely to become the second player from Regina selected No. 1 in the draft (Doug Wickenheiser, Montreal Canadiens, 1980). The only player born in British Columbia to be chosen No. 1 was forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of Red Deer in the WHL, by the Oilers in 2011.

Those who know Bedard realize the greatest compliment he could get, however, is from his role model.

"More and more after each accomplishment he achieves, I would say that work ethic and determination and just being able to handle all the pressure is what impresses me most ... and he doesn't allow things to affect him," Madisen said. "He's so driven and goal-oriented to the point where that outside noise just doesn't get to him, at least from my point of view. I know I always had goals and a love for the sport, but when I see his determination, how much he puts into it, it kind of blows my mind a little bit.

"He has such high expectations for himself, so when he achieves these things, it's great, but it almost seems like he's kind of like 'OK, I did that, so now I've got to reach this,' or 'I need to set this goal for myself.'

"Seeing that constant evolution and determination has been pretty crazy to witness firsthand."

And soon enough, that energy and tremendous skill will be on display in the greatest League in the world.

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