After another spectacular outing this past weekend from Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard that saw him notch a beautiful goal against the Florida Panthers, Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis breaks down if it’s possible for Bedard to score 50 this season.
Matt Larkin: “Oh Baby” as Bob Cole would say, Connor Bedard is hot right now that’s six goals in four games and he’s been on the highlight reel. He’s now on pace for 57 goals which would be the most by a rookie since Teemu Selanne had 76 in 1992-93. So Steven I want to know, how many goals does Bedard finish with here?
Steven Ellis: I don’t think he hits 57. First off, if he can hit 50 that would be awesome but I’m going with 48 right now. That feels like the gut number to me. With how good he’s been playing, the team will learn to pick up and defend against him. He continues to find ways to amaze, stole the puck and pull off things that for as good as he is we still aren’t expecting, he’s thriving in the moment. But I think as teams start to face him for a second or third time they’ll figure it out and it’ll be like “Oh okay we can take a run at him.” Yeah, he’s got the speed and tenacity to score all those goals but I can’t see him score 50 this year. If he did, that’s special. Not many 50-goal-scorer rookies in the last two decades. He’s special, there’s not much else to say, we are watching greatness.
Matt Larkin: I think I’m with you that he will fall short of 50, his shooting percentage is really high it’s over 20% and I do think Bedard, with his release being so deadly, he’ll be a high shooting percentage guy for much of his career. I did a little math, he’s at 3.31 shots per game, I had him maybe dropping to maybe 15% if we did that math for the remaining 69 games I think he’s finishing with 43 which is still the most since Alex Ovechkin in 2005-06 in rookie goal scoring.
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