Connor Bedard, as Seen by the Regina Pats' Photographer

Keith Hershmiller has photographed Connor Bedard's WHL career, from a 15-year-old standing out in a bubble to exploding a water bottle. There've been some emotional moments along the way.

As the Regina Pats' team photographer, Keith Hershmiller has had a front-row seat for Connor Bedard's development at the major junior level over the past three seasons.

When the WHL mounted its 24-game 2020-21 'developmental' season, Hershmiller was there on Day 1, inside the bubble in the East Division hub city of Regina.

"There were a couple of other photographers, but I was really the only photographer in the bubble allowed to shoot the games," said Hershmiller, who has been working with the Pats for more than 14 years. "We're talking 84 games in 49 days. It was a lot of hockey."

With no fans in the stands, he had free reign to move throughout the arena bowl to capture angles that wouldn't normally be available. And on March 12, 2021, he was on hand to shoot Connor Bedard's WHL debut — and his first two goals — as the Pats dropped a 6-3 decision to the Prince Albert Raiders.

Bedard came into Regina with plenty of hype around him: the first overall pick in the Bantam (U-15) draft and the first player ever granted exceptional status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old. 

John Paddock was Regina's longtime GM when Bedard joined the team and has also coached the generational talent over the last two seasons.

When asked about his first impressions of Bedard in 2021, Paddock said, "Well, the 15-year-old looks like a 20-year-old, and the 20-year-old looks like a 15-year-old. That’s what he was. You could tell that he was the most talented player on the ice."

Hershmiller agrees.

"Watching Connor play at that level in his first year was like, 'Wow, we've got something special here,' " he said. "We knew that we had something special coming in, but we didn't really know what it was until we actually saw him play on our ice."

Bedard played 15 games in the WHL bubble before he left for Texas to win his first gold medal with Team Canada as a double-underager at the 2021 World Men's Under-18 Championship. Despite playing nine fewer games than most of his teammates on the Pats — and did we mention that he was 15? — he tied for first in team scoring with 28 points and finished second with 12 goals.

His final game with Regina in the 2020-21 season came on April 9, a 2-1 overtime win over the Brandon Wheat Kings. Bedard scored both goals on a night that included one of Hershmiller's most memorable moments.

Three nights earlier, Bedard had posted two goals and two assists in a 6-1 win over the Swift Current Broncos. After that game, he was informed that his grandfather, Garth, had been killed in a head-on collision on a highway near Sicamous, B.C.

Rather than choosing to return to Vancouver earlier to mourn and serve his required quarantine before heading to Texas, Bedard elected to stay in Regina for one more game. He'd suit up against the Wheat Kings, as planned, because that's what his grandfather would have wanted.

He opened the scoring at the 22-second mark of the second period, and Hershmiller's lens caught what happened next.

"He's coming in on the play," he said. "He shoots, he scores, and he points to the sky in tribute to his grandfather. For me, that was a beautiful moment. I was crying the whole time when he scored that goal and pointed to the sky because it's so beautiful. 

"I thought, 'What a moment that was for him to have, to honor his grandfather.' It's my favorite photo of all time, of Connor."

Another Hershmiller favorite shows the lid and contents of Brandon Wheat Kings goalie Jackson Unger's water bottle spilling into the air.

Bedard isn't even in the picture. But he's still the subject.

"It's unfortunate because he was so far out outside the circle when he took that shot," Hershmiller explained. "Its accuracy was so precise that he made the water bottle completely explode. It's like this water bottle is just absolutely destroyed by one wrist shot."

Hershmiller also captured Bedard cosplaying the famous Bobby Orr goal celebration, which earned the Bruins the 1970 Stanley Cup.

"There isn't anything that that kid wouldn't do to get that puck," Hershmiller said. "He's always laser-focused to the puck, to try and steal it from the players, trying to make the play. 

"We saw what happened in the world juniors — you know, that one-timer when he's almost in the crease, and he's falling into the net? He does everything for the play, for the puck, for the goal, for the team. 

"He's trying to make plays that we didn't think could ever happen."

While a typical teenager might squirm when asked to pose for a portrait-type photo off the ice, Hershmiller says that Bedard was always a willing subject.

"If he was frustrated, he never showed it," Hershmiller said. "He was very easy-going to work with in photo shoots. 

"We've had a few of them in different settings, whether it's a headshot or we were doing some promotions for the clothing store, and he was required to be one of the models. He was all over it, and he took it all in stride. 

"That's part of his new way of life now," he added. "People and teams are going to expect that that's what's going to happen. Between myself and the world juniors and all that, the cameras are always in front of him. Everybody wants to talk, everyone wants his picture. So he's pretty used to the 'paparazzi' so to speak — it doesn't faze him at all."