After the Blackhawks’ 82-game regular season, which concluded on Monday, the 2023–24 season is now officially over. However, before we completely focus on the impending entire summer in a week, there is one player who has not yet been thoroughly analyzed.
And that guy is the main reason to be optimistic about this situation in the long run, since Connor Bedard lived up to the hype of being a generational talent for a few years before being selected first overall in the 2023 draft.
Bedard, who turns 19 on July 17, was only 18 years old during the season when he scored 61 points (22 G, 39 A) in 68 games. His 61 points and 39 assists were the only records set in Chicago during the previous season, and he was tied with Jason Dickinson for the team lead in goals. His 19:47 average of ice time per game ranked him fourth on the team overall and first among Blackhawks forwards.
And occasionally, in that 19:47 per game, he performed actions such as these:
Thus, to sum up, the kid was really damn excellent, and the main unanswered question now is how good he will get in the NHL. However, because Bedard’s rookie season showcased the abundance of hockey potential that had scouts drooling for years, this season supplied a ton of clues for that riddle.
The scenario may be summarized in one number, according to Natural Stat Trick: 91.89 percent IPP. That stands for Individual Point Percentage, or the proportion of Chicago goals scored when Bedard was on the ice that gave him a point. Bedard ranked FOURTH among 462 NHL forwards who skated at least 200 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time this season. That probably says more about Bedard’s amazing talent than it does about the caliber of his teammates. It’s still a crazy figure. He’s ahead of some of the greatest names in the game, including his old pal Patrick Kane (18th at 81.82), Nikita Kucherov (16th at 82.72), and Artemi Panarin (13th at 83.33). At 27th place, Connor McDavid was down at an even 80.00.
A few films assist explain why Bedard was involved in so many goals during his time on the ice; they all center on his capacity to assess plays as they were being played and turn seemingly hopeless situations into scoring opportunities. Here is an example of one against the Anaheim Ducks, which was brought about solely by a cunning puck grab by Bedard at the offensive blue line:
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