While Bedard has struggled offensively compared to expectations, his defensive game is improving.
Connor Bedard may not be scoring goals or producing offensively at the rate many thought he would in his second season after an impressive rookie campaign, but he is playing better on the defensive side of the puck.
At 18 years old, Bedard was a -44 and had 57 giveaways. These aren’t good at all. Naturally, for a center and a star who plays as much as Bedard in the situations he does, he tends to have the puck more often. This does lead to giveaways, but was still more than he should have.
The +/- on a bad team is understandable, but at the same time, players like Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson were both positive while Bedard had the worst +/- on the Chicago Blackhawks.
As a superstar in the making like Bedard, the hope and expectation is that he would progress his game year after year. He is still a teenager and not nearly in his prime, so there’s a ways to go and a lot of work to be done. To this point, even though the offense is struggling for the most part, some defensive aspects have improved.
Bedard’s +/- is -12 through 26 games. If he were to play 68 games like last season at the pace he’s on, Bedard would finish at a -31, which is not great, but an improvement nonetheless. As for giveaways, the young center has 17. Once again, if he were to play 68 games at the pace he’s on, Bedard would have 44 giveaways, not 57.
For a forward to get 27 blocked shots in a season isn’t bad, but Bedard did so while missing 14 games and while playing no penalty killing minutes. He is well on his way to surpassing that total this season without any time on the penalty kill once again.
Bedard is seeing what it takes to help win games, and that includes getting in front of shots and playing in all areas, regardless of if he’s the best player on the team or not. A leader leads by example and he seems to be doing that at such a young age.
We will definitely continue to see his development and upward trajectory overall, especially once he gets his offense on track and shots start going in.
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