There’s been a lot of talk about who wasn’t part of Team Canada’s Olympic squad. That’s nothing new with Olympic teams. They’re stacked from top to bottom, the choices are razor thin, and someone everyone expected to see always ends up on the outside. This time, one of those names is Connor Bedard.
Most people shrug their shoulders and say: difficult choices, great depth, he will get his turn. Reasonable. But when Bedard’s own head coach says something, it’s worth listening because Jeff Blashill doesn’t argue from hype. He argues from everyday experience.
Blashill starts by respecting the process
Blashill was careful to start with respect. He acknowledged how difficult these decisions are, not just for Canada, but for any country that puts together a roster of elite players. That matters. These were not sour grapes. It was the context. And then he got to the point.
What Blashill strongly believes is that the rest of the league doesn’t yet understand what kind of player Connor Bedard has already become. Not what he could ever be. What he is now.
Related: Why Connor Bedard isn’t “good enough” for Team Canada
Blashill came back hard on the idea that Bedard is just a point producer, a gifted offensive player who you can later shelter and build around. He talked about “two-time winning hockey,” and that phrase says it all. In Blashill’s eyes, Bedard impacts games in ways that aren’t always neatly depicted in graphs or defensive stats. And he was blunt about that too.
He doesn’t trust most of those figures yet. Not because they are useless, but because they do not measure what they claim to measure. Instead, Blashill relies on one thing: winning.
Blashill talks about Bedard’s impact on the Blackhawks’ success
When Bedard was in the Blackhawks lineup, the team was one point away from a wild card spot. Since then? A rough stretch of 1-6-1. That doesn’t happen, Blashill said, when a player racks up points and drifts away from the tough parts of the game. That kind of swing only happens when a player gets results: from shift to shift, from puck battle to puck battle.
This is where the conversation gets interesting. Olympic hockey is not about development or potential. It’s about short tournaments, tight matches and players tilting the ice without needing perfect conditions. Blashill says Bedard already does that. Trustworthy. And sooner than most people expected.
Team Canada didn’t pick Bedard; His coach says they are wrong
Maybe Team Canada decided this wasn’t the time. That is their call. But if Blashill is right — and coaches usually know their own players best — then this could be one of those decisions that people will look back on and say we hadn’t seen him quite clearly yet.
And that especially tells you how quickly Connor Bedard is growing in his game.
Related: Tom Wilson Made Team Canada, But Not Sam Bennett: Why?
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