Anyone who has seen Connor Bedard will be able to confirm it: He is only 17 years old, but already has a shot that will make many NHL players jealous.
• Also read: From clumsy toddler on the ice to hockey prodigy
• Also read: Meet Connor Bedard, the child prodigy who makes the world of hockey dream
Some scouts even claim his shot would drive some of the best goalies in the world crazy if he played at Bettman circuit.
However, this weapon is nothing like a godsend.
“He’s a really hard-working youngster who’s dedicated to his cause. It always comes naturally to him. I can’t even count how many evenings he threw pucks alone with his inline skates, with a headlamp. He was recording non-stop every day,” says his father Thomas.
Rather classic story by the way: After some windows in the house were smashed, the Bedards decided to move the boy’s training area to the back. A neighbor even helped build a kind of wooden exercise cage on which he could train safely.
Study Austin Matthews
With practice, Bedard’s technique was perfect very early on. However, as he hit puberty and he became physically stronger, he truly understood that he had a tool in his suitcase that could do harm.
“It was from the bantam ranks that I started studying NHL players and observing their throwing technique. I then tried to recreate certain types of games in training,” says Bedard, who, to the surprise of almost everyone, has studied many videos of Auston Matthews, from the Toronto Maple Leafs, in order to perfect his technique.
10 hours a day
That devastating shot certainly didn’t hurt Bedard in 2018-19 as he hoped to achieve outstanding player status in Junior League West.
“By the time he was 14, his puck handling and skating skills were elite. But at that age, there was one thing that set him apart from the rest: goalkeepers couldn’t stop his throw. When he got his exceptional player status, I said in the media and still do, “He already had an NHL shot,” adds his coach with the Warriors U18 program WestVan, Ryan Marr.
“When you see his shot, you understand he didn’t get that overnight,” said Regina Pats teammate Alexander Suzdalev. He throws pucks all day. Even in Sweden [durant la pandémie de COVID-19]we had a room to practice our punches and he had to spend 10 hours a day there.
A change
What makes Bedard’s shot so dangerous isn’t just its power. His ability to get the puck on his right skate from the outside and then use the leverage of his stick, all on the move, is a technique not only given to everyone, but mastered perfectly.
The Proof: When World Juniors resumed in August, several players mentioned in interviews that they were trying to reproduce the “Bedard Technique.” This is still the case for Remparts striker Nathan Gaucher a few months later.
“Sometimes it felt like the game was going nowhere and suddenly he came out with a throw that no one saw coming. His way of drawing is unique. I’ve been doing it since I saw it this summer. He brought something new and there is a change in the way players want to shoot the puck. I’m talking to some goalkeepers about it and it’s an express that’s very difficult to judge.
His shooting under the magnifying glass
1) Bedard stands in front of the defender and begins his movement by placing the puck as far away from his body as possible.
2) He quickly gets the puck to his right skate, leaving no clue as to where his shot is going.
3) Bedard uses the momentum created by his previous maneuver and the flex of his racquet (a flex of 70) to create the catapult effect.
4) He forcefully releases the puck. The keeper has no chance and is hit in the upper area, on the side of the shield.
An impressive marker
2018-2019 (13 years)
- 64 goals in 30 games with West Van Bantam Prep Academy
2019-2020 (14 years old)
- 43 goals in 36 games with West Van M18 Academy
2020-2021 (15 years)
- 12 goals in 15 games with the Regina Pats (WHL)
2020-2021 (15 years)
- 7 goals in 7 games with Team Canada U18
2021-2022 (16 years old)
- 51 goals in 62 games with the Regina Pats (WHL)
2021-2022 (16 years old)
- 6 goals in 4 games with Team Canada U18
2021-2022 (16 years old)
- 4 goals in 7 games with Team Canada U20
2022-2023 (17 years)
- 24 goals in 26 games with the Regina Pats (WHL)
The newspaper contacted a dozen stakeholders as part of this report to get to know Connor Bedard, the hockey player but also the human being. If some anecdotes were popular and made their way into one or the other of the various reports you’ve read over the last few days, others weren’t so lucky. We introduce you to four that are still worth telling.
One goal… and he doesn’t play anymore!
In the 2019/20 season, Connor Bedard was a marked player. Though the West Van Academy Warriors were barred from confirming that the youngster had applied for exceptional player status, the news was widely circulated. During the season, the team decides to compete in a showcase tournament in the Boston area.
“There was a fun atmosphere before our first game. I had a strange feeling. Everyone followed us and the parents started asking questions. I felt uncomfortable and had a strange feeling.
In that match, Bedard scores a beautiful goal that is still part of the many montages of the finest games of his career that can be found on YouTube.
“Throughout that game he was constantly tagged. Opposing players just tried to stop him. Then he scored the goal that made the six opposing players look bad on the ice. Then I made the decision to bench him for the rest of the game. I had the impression that it would degenerate and I was afraid for his health. He wasn’t happy at the time, but he later appreciated it.
A unique number
Connor Bedard was six years old when he decided, probably subconsciously, that he was going to be a one-of-a-kind hockey player.
“I had noticed that nobody had the number 98 in the NHL and I really liked the high numbers. I wanted to have my own number and 11 years later it still haunts me.
There is evidence that no active player in the NHL wore this number at the time, which was actually worn only once in the history of the track by Brian Lawton. Since then, defenseman Mikhail Sergachev of Tampa Bay Lightning and winger Jess Puljujarvi of the Edmonton Oilers have chosen this number, as have Victor Mete of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Maxim Mamin of the Florida Panthers.
With the pros at 12
There is nothing unusual about a young prospect training with professional players over the summer unless that young prospect is 12 years old. At the recommendation of his summer coach, Jon Calvano, Bedard joined a group of professional players while still in elementary school to train with NHL stars such as Mathew Barzal and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins during the summer.
“They invited me once and I’m not sure they were very happy to see a young person like me there,” laughs Bedard in an interview with the Journal. But it was a big challenge for me.”
“When we found out how old he was, we were shocked,” Nugent-Hopkins told Sportsnet in 2020. “Everything he did was ahead of his age.”
Since that first attempt at age 12, Bedard has never stopped training with these pro players over the summer.
“It’s a really good indicator of where I am in my development,” adds the 17-year-old forward. Every summer I can see if I’ve gotten closer to them.
Not only has he grown closer to them, but he’s probably only a few months away from sharing the same rink.
Nailed the child prodigy to the bank
Wherever he went, Connor Bedard was the heart of his team. For the first time in his life, he sat on the bench at the last World Junior Hockey Championship resumption last August. In a preliminary round match against Finland, head coach Dave Cameron Bedard let his feet freeze in the last two periods and only used him to 3:58. If you think Hockey Canada staff were entitled to a child king crisis afterwards, you’d be dead wrong, assures Louis Robaille, assistant coach of Canada’s selection at the last World Juniors.
“Did he understand? Certainly there was a bit of frustration because he wanted more. But we never felt like it had become a distraction. He’s not that kind of player. He’s a business. He wanted to know what he does well and what he needs to do better.
“He was also very close to Mason McTavish, who acted a bit like his big brother. You communicated a lot. We also forget that it’s a tournament for players aged 18 or 19 and that he was only 16 years old.
Bedard then resumed his regular role on the team en route to winning the gold medal.