We live in a time when we are all looking for the next ‘thing’. The average attention span is approximately eight seconds. People only stay on a website for 10 seconds (thanks for reading this if you are still!). And most of us check our phones at least every few minutes, in the hope of the sweet satisfaction of a report.
Maybe I ask too much if I took you to throw your thoughts back two or three years.
In Hockey, one name dominated NHL trekkingskoppen, prospect lists and articles that fantasize about franchise fortunes when they land the next ‘thing’.
Connor Bedard kept the attention of the hockey world, on his fever, for an admirable few months. When the Chicago Blackhawks selected him for the first time in 2023, he wore the usual weight of expectations associated with players compared to Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky.
Then the attention and focus faded.
Macklin Celebrini became the next ‘thing’ a year later. Players selected after Bedard, such as Matvei Michkov, debuted and took their spurs. The Blackhawks have struggled enormously and ended up as one of the worst teams in the competition for the past two seasons.
Related: Blackhawks 5 keys to success in 2025-26
Despite the placement of 128 points in his first two seasons, Bagard lost the “hype” who had accompanied him since he entered the audience. Just like that, like Said Keyser Söze The usual suspects“And so, he’s gone.”
At least, that’s what many would make you believe. There are increasingly rumbling that Bedard is ready for a Breakout season. But everyone who has looked at Bagard knows that the “hype” should not have disappeared as much as it did, and that Bagard has further motivated that.
How Bagard lost “Hype”
This piece will not claim that Bagard is better than his reputation, although I made that belief and that case earlier this year. Instead, let’s investigate how the hype around him disappeared so quickly and the fascinating reformulation of the expectations that has developed.
Everyone expected Bedard to be the next ‘one’. The comparisons with McDavid and Crosby were in abundance and the pressure to restore the Blackhawks franchise in his former glory that immediately manifested himself after general manager Kyle Davidson had selected him. Although the excitement inevitably increases when discussing a projected first general selection, the hockey community does not use the word “generation” lightly.
Matthew Schaefer? Not generation.
Celebration? Not generation.
Juraj Slafkovský? Not generation.
Owen Power? Not generation.
Alexis Lafrenière? Not generation.
Those are not my provisions. Those were the consensions at the concept of each players. You will be hard to find a serious hockey spirit that those players called ‘generation’.
Justifiably. Excessive diluted the potential. Heck, Nathan Mackinnon did not receive the tag “generation”. We use that term sparingly, and clearly some of the best players in the NHL are not honored today with the label.
Bedard was, however.
At the time it was justified. Bedard placed Stratospheric songs, breaks records in the Western Hockey League and at the Junior World Championship. He showed everyone else like mini mites.
If we can twist an uncle Ben-Citaat from Spider-Man to our own use, “Great Labels will be great responsibility.” As soon as Bedard was linked as a generation, only generation performance would satisfy, support and awe.
Bedard has clearly not been generation. He has been good. Very, very good (and we will discuss that further). But he has not been a generation.
All hype fell into the gap that arose between expectations and delivery.
Bedard is good as a bedard
Last week a good friend of mine was the clip below of Bedard training this summer. Take a few seconds to look (please come back).
@kaavohockey_ Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks 🔥 #kaavohockey #Hockey training #Hockeytikoks #connorbedard #Hockeydrills ♬ Original sound – Lyrics & LT3
Not bad, right? Or what about this, where Bagard does not lose speed, despite determining stops and turns?
There has been talk of Bagard’s summer training, in particular how he skipped the world championship to concentrate exclusively on improving. Of course it is not a NHL game, but he looks pretty good in the above segments. And then it struck me:
Bedard wants to be ‘generation’. Bad.
He knows that he has not yet delivered that level. But he wants, and to do that, he must use everything as a motivation. The talent and work ethic are there. Now it’s time for the willpower.
McDavid is not the same player as Crosby. Crosby is not the same player as Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin is not Gretzky (far from). But they are all generation talents who, while completing their games, tended to what made them the players they are.
Bedard must do the same. Of course he has to improve, but the same bedard that the label has earned ‘generation’ is the only one who can meet expectations. What we have seen of him this summer looks like he is doing that.
Talent does not disappear from one day to the next
Even when talented hockey players cannot switch to the NHL, their talent does not evaporate. Usually there is an inability to compete with the speed and strength of the NHL.
This is not the case for Bagard. He has shown that he can succeed with breathtaking goals and even 200-foot defensive plays. A combination of hard work, growth and time will enable him to show everyone why his name was spoken in the same breath as McDavid and Crosby.
Current NHL -Groten see and know this. Mackinnon already said that he would have ‘murder’ to have achieved what Bagarde was when he was his age (from ‘Nathan Mackinnon on the stagnant production of Connor Bedard:’ I had killed before that when I was 19 ‘, AthleticsMarch 11, 2025).
Patrick Kane recently weighed, say:
I think we have all seen him play enough where he has moments in the game where he has the puck where he makes plays that you like: “Okay, not many boys can do that.” If I was a Blackhawks fan or someone in the organization, that would probably be the last of my worries because … he gives a lot about it. He wants to be good. That is half the battle.
There is a saying that the biggest trick had ever drawn, convince the world that he did not exist. Maybe Bagard has the same trick in his sleeve.
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