NHL Scout Claims Connor Bedard Is Overrated
Connor Bedard is the best prospect we have seen since Connor McDavid but now some scouts are starting to say he is not as good as the public thinks he is.
NHL Scouts Think Bedard Hype Is Overblown
It is widely considered that Connor Bedard is a franchise-altering player. Chicago was lucky to win the draft lottery and get the opportunity to select him. After posting 71 goals and 143 points in 57 games this past season, he is considered the consensus number-one pick.
While nobody is doubting his abilities as the number one pick in the draft, NHL scouts are starting to think people need to lower their expectations of Bedard.
In a recent article for The Athletic, Corey Pronman interviewed NHL scouts and executives to get a sense of what they think about top draft prospects and an NHL scout said some controversial things about Bedard.
This is a tad concerning because if we were to draw an expectation from this statement, we could expect Bedard to put up ~70 points in his rookie year, top 32 in scoring, and win the Calder. Obviously, the era has changed since then so an equivalency would be scoring at a point-per-game pace over 82 games, and winning the Calder.
McDavid scored 48 points in 45 games as a rookie, in a dead puck era where Patrick Kane lead league scoring with 106 points and only Kane, Jamie Benn, and Sidney Crosby, scored over an 87-point pace.
I think Bedard will be a blend between a Kane rookie year and a McDavid rookie year. He will likely have worse linemates than both had their rookie year so that needs to be accounted for with his projected linemates being Tyler Johnson and Andreas Athanasiou. We could reasonably expect Bedard to score 30-40 goals and 70+ points.
While he will likely not be on the level of Matthew Tkachuk (top 5-10 player) as a rookie, he will likely be on a higher level than that of Mark Scheifele who scored 42 goals and 68 points this past season. It will be hard to project Bedard's game for next year but we can expect a top-tier career from him when it is all said and done.
As seen on The Athletic NHL Draft confidential: What scouts and executives think of Bedard, Michkov and more
| POLL | ||
JUIN 13 | 157 ANSWERS NHL Scout Claims Connor Bedard Is Overrated Will Connor Bedard score 40 plus goals as a rookie? | ||
| Yes | 45 | 28.7 % |
| No | 112 | 71.3 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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APRIL 29, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brendan Gallagher | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Guentzel | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dominic James | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Gage Goncalves | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Yanni Gourde | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Noel Acciari | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Denver Barkey | - | - | - | |
| Oliver Bjorkstrand | - | - | - | |
| Alex Bump | - | - | - | |
| Michael Carcone | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||
| 2025-2026 NHL STANDINGS | ||||||
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Sabres | 82 | 50 | 23 | 9 | 109 | |
| Lightning | 82 | 50 | 26 | 6 | 106 | |
| Canadiens | 82 | 48 | 24 | 10 | 106 | |
| Bruins | 82 | 45 | 27 | 10 | 100 | |
| Senators | 82 | 44 | 27 | 11 | 99 | |
| Red Wings | 82 | 41 | 31 | 10 | 92 | |
| Panthers | 82 | 40 | 38 | 4 | 84 | |
| Maple Leafs | 82 | 32 | 36 | 14 | 78 | |
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Hurricanes | 82 | 53 | 22 | 7 | 113 | |
| Penguins | 82 | 41 | 25 | 16 | 98 | |
| Flyers | 82 | 43 | 27 | 12 | 98 | |
| Capitals | 82 | 43 | 30 | 9 | 95 | |
| Blue Jackets | 82 | 40 | 30 | 12 | 92 | |
| Islanders | 82 | 43 | 34 | 5 | 91 | |
| Devils | 82 | 42 | 37 | 3 | 87 | |
| Rangers | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 77 | |
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Avalanche | 82 | 55 | 16 | 11 | 121 | |
| Stars | 82 | 50 | 20 | 12 | 112 | |
| Wild | 82 | 46 | 24 | 12 | 104 | |
| Mammoth | 82 | 43 | 33 | 6 | 92 | |
| Blues | 82 | 37 | 33 | 12 | 86 | |
| Predators | 82 | 38 | 34 | 10 | 86 | |
| Jets | 82 | 35 | 35 | 12 | 82 | |
| Blackhawks | 82 | 29 | 39 | 14 | 72 | |
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Golden Knights | 82 | 39 | 26 | 17 | 95 | |
| Oilers | 82 | 41 | 30 | 11 | 93 | |
| Ducks | 82 | 43 | 33 | 6 | 92 | |
| Kings | 82 | 35 | 27 | 20 | 90 | |
| Sharks | 82 | 39 | 35 | 8 | 86 | |
| Kraken | 82 | 34 | 37 | 11 | 79 | |
| Flames | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 77 | |
| Canucks | 82 | 25 | 49 | 8 | 58 | |
COMPLETE STANDINGS | ||||||