If you happened to have turned on the TV to TSN or Sportsnet the past year, there’s a good chance you’ve already heard of the name Connor Bedard.
If you haven’t, well, he’s about to be skating on the main ice surface on 18th and Richmond in Brandon, Manitoba tomorrow night. You might want to check it out.
There hasn’t been a player come through the doors of the Keystone Centre with this much hype since, maybe Taylor Hall at the 2010 Memorial Cup, when the future 1st overall pick won the four-team tournament with the Windsor Spitfires.
Sure, there’s been other great players over the past decade to play in front of us like Leon Draisaitl (3rd overall to Edmonton in 2014), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1st overall to Edmonton in 2011) and even a pair of Wheat Kings that wowed Westman like Nolan Patrick (2nd overall to Philadelphia in 2017) and Ivan Provorov (7th overall to Philadelphia in 2015)……but not like this…..not like Bedard.
10 out of 10 scouts surveyed by TSN have the Regina Pats forward at number one in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. One NHL head scout was recently quoted as saying “…when you look at how (Bedard) shoots the puck, his innate ability to score goals and you project him as an elite goal scorer who could very well get 50 or 60 in the NHL.”
Connor Bedard is scheduled to make only three stops in the Wheat City this season. Tomorrow night, January 6th and February 24th. Sorry to break it to you Westman, but on January 5th the World Junior Gold and Bronze medal games are being played in Halifax, Nova Scotia……meaning, unfortunately we won’t be seeing Bedard on the 6th.
Whether you’re a die-hard Hockey fan that has had this game penciled on your calendar all summer, or an average sports fan that just likes seeing athletes push their sport to another level…..the Bedard show should be worth the price of admission……before we have to travel east on the number 1 highway and pay NHL prices to see him at the Canada Life Centre next year.
Geez, that’s a lot of pressure on one kid, how is he going to handle it? He currently leads the WHL in scoring to start the season….enjoy the show Westman.
