Connor Bedard on his ceiling, the business of hockey and captaincy: ‘I can be pretty good’

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Connor Bedard on his ceiling, the business of hockey and captaincy: ‘I can be pretty good’

Connor Bedard on his ceiling, the business of hockey and captaincy: ‘I can be pretty good’

SALT LAKE CITY — Days off in the NHL are precious. Days off on the road in a new city are unheard-of. Connor Bedard has plans to enjoy the warm, sunny Wednesday following the season opener against the new Utah Hockey Club — lunch with his dad, Tom, before he catches an afternoon flight home, then dinner up in Park City with the boys.

But here he is, fresh off breakfast, wearing the standard hockey-player hoodie and slides, coming down the palatial hallway of the team’s five-star hotel for a rare sit-down interview. Make no mistake, perhaps no player in the league met the press more regularly than Bedard last year. He more than fulfilled his media obligations. But it was almost always in the dressing room, in a scrum setting. One-on-one time was very uncommon. Full-blown casual conversations were basically off the table.

And as any athlete, reporter or viewer will tell you, scrums are the absolute worst. As a bloc, we don’t always exactly cover ourselves in glory in those claustrophobic settings.

“It’s hard to show personality when you’re getting the same questions all the time,” Bedard said with a wry smile.

But now that he’s a second-year pro, a wily veteran at the ripe old age of 19, might we see more of that personality shine through? He’s showing it on Instagram videos, making football picks with his buddies. He’s kicking off snarky NHL commercials about Gen Z’s supposed flaws. And he’s starting to do occasional interviews like this one. It’s not exactly his style to be big and bombastic off the ice, but his comfort level with the NHL and with stardom is clearly on the rise.

Here’s part of our conversation, focusing more on the hockey side of things. It’s been lightly edited for clarity. Look for the rest of our chat in a future story.

You’re on pace for 164 points this season. Anything less than that will be a disappointment, I assume?

Yeah, I think probably for you guys, you’d be upset. The downfall! No, I mean, it was nice to just get back in the game. And it’s cool we got to be a part of that first game there. Obviously not a great outcome (a 5-2 loss), but I thought overall as the game went on we got a lot better. And it was just fun to be a part of that moment in history.

One of the things I heard in the run-up to the draft was that you’re ‘obsessed with greatness.’ I’ve heard that same thing said about Nathan MacKinnon in the exact same way — you have a singular mindset that you want to be great. Is that just an innate thing you have, where you can’t accept anything less than that?

I think so. Even as a kid. I was 5 years old and it’s really all I wanted to do. I think that’s the thing — it’s obviously a passion and I want to be the best I can be. But it just generally is what I want to be doing, and I want to try to improve, and I don’t want to look back one day and feel I didn’t reach my full potential.

What is that full potential? What do you see as your ceiling?

I don’t know. I think I can be pretty good. But we’ll see. I’m confident in myself and that confidence comes from the work I put in. I know that I’m not going to cheat myself and cheat that ability to get to the best I can be. How good is that? Who knows. But I think it’s pretty good.

It’s such a hockey player thing to be humble and downplay things on the outside. But all 700 guys in the NHL have to have this unwavering self-belief, this arrogance. You can’t get here without that. Connor McDavid talked about that a little bit (on the Amazon show), ‘When I’m at my best, it’s a tough level to match.’ You have to have that attitude, don’t you?

For sure. If you go out there thinking that you’re not going to do something good, then you already lost the battle. I’m really confident in myself and I don’t need to tell anyone what I think I can do or what I think I am as a player. I want to go show it. In my head before a game, I’m just going out there having fun, but also knowing I want to make a difference in the game. And I know I can.

You already told me you won’t tell me what your goals are for the season, but do you have goals like that career-wise, too? Do you have round numbers in your head where it’s like, ‘This is what I have to do to reach my potential?’

That’s so long-term. I think anyone’s goal in hockey ever since they were kids is to win a Stanley Cup. And that’s the main thing for everyone. So if that happens, it would obviously be the pinnacle. It’s hard to look at a full career and put numbers to it.

“I’d never tell you, but I have stuff in my head, for sure.”

—Connor Bedard when @MarkLazerus asked if he has statistical goals in mind pic.twitter.com/75Jlf7Lwz9

— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) September 20, 2024

So you’re not just thinking 1,000 goals or something wild like that.

(Laughs) No, no, I don’t think so.

Is that part of this process, though? You come in and you want to win the Stanley Cup and you’ve been dominant at every level. Then you get to the NHL and it’s hard. You’re on a team that’s at the bottom, working its way up. Learning to lose, learning to handle going two or three games without a goal — is that difficult?

Yeah, losing sucks. I think you can ask anyone that was on our team last year, it wasn’t very fun. Especially by the end. You’re out and you’re still enjoying playing and there’s stuff you’re playing for, but we’re professional athletes and we want to be playing to win. That was really frustrating. I can definitely be a bit of a baby going through all those losses. But even losing the last game, it’s how we bounce back. That’ll be something that we show that we got a lot better at.

Jonathan Toews was a huge baby, too, when he first got into the league. He took his work home with him, yelled and screamed at his linemates on the bench, threw things in the locker room. It takes time to accept the ebbs and flows of the sport.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. My first year (in junior) we lost a good amount of games. And I remember I had a tough start. But after that in junior, it was smoother sailing. We had a better second year as a team and I had a good second year myself, I guess (laughs). It’s definitely different coming in and you’re just playing all the best players in the world. But that’s what’s so fun about hockey, the competitiveness and the challenge of going up every night against the best.

You have to be careful, too, right? Patrick Kane, his last couple of years here when things started going poorly, he was always worried about young players coming in and developing losing habits and a losing mindset. How do you fight that when Kyle (Davidson) is playing a long game? How do you learn to not accept losing, but to understand losing? It’s a fine line to walk.

I don’t even think you should understand it. We’re players, we go out there and we try to win and that’s our goal every night. You never accept it. I guess maybe in the summer you can look at the long term, but not really as players. You just go out there and you try to win and you try to play your best.

Did the captaincy interest you at all? Or is that something for down the road? Are you even too young to be a captain?

(Laughs) That’s not a question for me. I don’t think anyone was surprised with (Nick Foligno) getting it. He’s a great leader and he came in and made a big impact. No one was surprised at all with that. Down the road one day, that’d be great. But I didn’t expect it or anything. We all expected ‘Fliggy’ to get it.

Can you be that kind of captain? Some captains are the big, open, gregarious guys like Foligno, but some are very different.

I would be different. I wouldn’t talk as much as Nick does (laughs). I think I lead by example with how I approach the game. Talking comes with time. I definitely would have a little different approach, but I think you can learn stuff from all the leaders in the room.

With all the turnover on the roster, I’m sure it’s exciting that you’re bringing in all these quality players. But you lost a bunch of your good friends, too. Taylor Raddysh was one of your closest friends, he walks out the door. MacKenzie Entwistle is gone. Is that just part of life in the NHL?

It’s weird, for sure. It’s part of the business side of it, but you (never) really think about that too much when you’re playing. You just think you’re going to play with these guys forever. ‘Rads’ and ‘Twisty,’ I went for dinner with them every single time on the road. I was close with those two guys. It’s tough seeing everyone go. But they’re in good situations and you’re happy for them getting opportunities. But it’s tough, and you just stay in touch.

So are you enjoying being an NHL player? Is this what you dreamed it would be?

Yeah. I just want to play the game and play at the highest level I can. It’s pretty cool how we get treated and the opportunities we have, not only on the ice but how to impact a city or a community. We’re all pretty fortunate.

So 40 goals or 50 goals this year, what’s the target?

(Laughs) I don’t know, we’ll see, man.

All right. Had to try.

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

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