Former NHL general manager and scout Craig Button compared Bedard to Steve Yzerman, the Hall of Famer who captained the Detroit Red Wings...
Former NHL general manager and scout Craig Button compared Bedard to Steve Yzerman, the Hall of Famer who captained the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup three times. “Connor has all the skills, but what impresses me is his intensity like Stevie Y, a killer instinct,” said Button, who follows the entry draft and junior hockey for the TSN network. in Canada.
Such talk could easily turn a 16-year-old’s head, but Bedard seems to be used to it. He’s been hearing it at least since he was 12, the first year he started skating with NHL players in their off-season practices. “I skated with them once that summer and I was that annoying little boy there,” he said. “When I was 14 I skated with them regularly, almost every day they had ice.”
Soon, Vancouver-based pros like Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of Edmonton, the 2011 first overall pick, would be texting Bedard when rounding up players for practices and scrimmages. Those sessions gave Bedard a sense of the skill and speed of NHL play, but the business side of the league, especially pre-draft interviews, stresses out a lot of talented teenagers.
Thus, Newport Sports Management, the agency representing Bedard, organized for its client interviews with three general managers of the NHL: Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins, Kyle Davidson of the Chicago Blackhawks and Yzerman, now at the front office of the Red Wings. .
For Bedard, the most intense was a one-on-one interview with Yzerman. “We talked for 45 minutes and he asked a lot of questions,” Bedard said. “In the end it probably became more of a conversation than an interview. I asked him a few questions and he gave me advice on the game and the league.
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