Bear improves by ‘leaps and bounds’ entering 2025 NHL Draft

The 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 27-28 at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The first round will be held June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), with rounds 2-7 on June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at Everett forward Carter Bear. Full draft coverage can be found here.

Carter Bear learned at a young age that scoring goals was better than trying to stop them.

During the days of youth hockey, when every player tried every position, it took Bear one turn at goalie to learn where his future lay.

"Went in goal one game, got torched, 8-2 loss," he said. "I never played again. I was like, ‘Nope, I'm done.’"

Bear found a better fit at forward, and the results show the 18-year-old made the right choice.

This season he tied for seventh in the Western Hockey League with 40 goals and led Everett with 82 points in 56 games. He did so despite missing the final five games of the regular season and the WHL playoffs because of a partially torn Achilles tendon sustained during a game against Portland on March 9.

"It was off an [offensive] zone draw, and then it kicked out to the far wall," Bear said. "Their [defenseman] picked it up, and then I guess he tried to flick it out of the zone. I did my job and finished my check on him, and when I finished my check on him he fell backwards. While he's falling I took a stride out and his right leg got my back of my right leg while he was falling down."

Bear had surgery four days after the injury and said he's already skating and doing weight-bearing exercises to rebuild his strength.

"Right now it's kind of close, so you're not totally sure yet, but [doctors] said I'll be ready for [training] camp, and I'll be 100 percent for the season," he said.

Despite the injury, NHL Central Scouting placed Bear No. 10 in its final ranking of North American skaters for the 2025 NHL Draft.

"I think with Carter, he has just continued to grow and mature as a player," Central Scouting senior western scout John Williams said. "He has a very strong work ethic to go along with his skill, so his overall game has improved in leaps and bounds over the past couple of seasons."

Some of that improvement was a result of continued physical maturation for Bear (6-foot, 179 pounds).

"I wanted to improve my skating, obviously acceleration, quick first three steps, so obviously working on that in the gym, doing lots of lower body [work]," Bear said. "And outside, just running track, sprints, all that.

"I'm not the tallest, still 6-foot, but I would say just using my body, using my height, using my weight to get pucks, stealing pucks. I think I use my body for bodychecking a lot of times."

Opposing players certainly noticed that uptick in strength and physicality during the season.

"He's got a lot of speed and shiftiness, hard to pin in the corner," said Tri-City defenseman Jackson Smith, who is No. 13 in the final ranking of North American skaters. "I think he has grown a bit and he's gotten stronger, and he's definitely more dominant than he was last year."

Everett general manager Mike Fraser said that commitment to getting better off the ice is what earned Bear more opportunities on the ice.

"I do find in junior hockey sometimes trying to convince the younger players, once you get to the offseason, to get to the gym and really work on putting on muscle, is not always easy to do," he said. "A lot of times I find the players, in their minds, they have it set that they need to get on the ice every moment of every day, if they can. But really, especially when your season is just ending, I find it so important for guys to get into the gym and that strength component to make that jump is so big."

Fraser also was impressed by the mature approach Bear showed as a 16-year-old during the 2022-23 season. He had two points (one goal, one assist) in 19 WHL games while playing the majority of the season with Winnipeg in the Manitoba U-18 AAA Hockey League.

"I think these players come in at 16 and all think that they should be on junior rosters, and really when you look down the rosters in the Western Hockey League, and really all across the Canadian Hockey League, there's not a lot of 16-year-olds there," he said. "And it's not because we don't want them or we don't want to keep them, but if you have too many of them, it's just the strength part and the older players, it just becomes a little bit overwhelming.

"I don't know of a situation where you send a 16-year-old back to U-18 and someone would consider that hurting his development. And I think in Carter Bear's case it was a perfect kind of fit for him to go back there and have a great season, be a leader on his U-18 team two years ago and obviously still get opportunities with us throughout the year because we were a little banged up with injuries. We had no concerns about having him in our lineup as well."

Bear was the captain with Winnipeg and had 59 points (32 goals, 27 assists) in 31 games. He was better prepared for the WHL last season and had 57 points (25 goals, 32 assists) in 67 games. The extra development time allowed him to mature into a player who this season was utilized in all situations.

"A lot of that is from the work he puts in, but also he's got such good hockey sense and is a smart player and recognizes situations and where we're at in a game through the course of a game," Fraser said. "It's nice, because you don't have to really worry about it, other than maybe giving him too much ice and wearing him out. But you can put him in all those situations. ... He's familiar with all those roles and how to handle them, but also very smart in terms of clock management and game management."

Bear, who said he tries to pattern his game after Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman, believes the next step for him is to continue on the path he's charted since tossing aside his goalie gear and finding a home at forward.

"[Hyman] has a motor on him, just intensity in all zones, and obviously has a great touch for the puck around the net.” Bear said. “... I kind of just stick to my game, do what the team needs me to do, stick to my role. I think it'll work out in the end."