Connor Bedard is making history as the most dominant player in Canadian world junior history at 17 years old.
The Regina Pats star is now the all-time leader in points and goals for Team Canada at the world juniors, sitting at 34 points and 16 goals.
“It’s nothing new to him, he has many more records to break,” said Pats forward Borya Valis.
Bedard scored at 5:17 of overtime on Monday night as the tournament hosts defeated Slovakia 4-3, advancing the Canadians to the semifinals.
“I was shaking on the couch watching him yesterday, but you don’t expect anything less from him, he’s got so much skill in the world. I’m just super proud of him and to see what he can do, hopefully he keeps going from here,” said Pats forward Tanner Howe.
“It’s all the little things that are away from the puck that he has grown in and will continue to grow in to have the ultimate success of having your name mentioned with the (Sidney) Crosbys, you have to play both ends of the ice. He’s just born to be a hockey player,” said Pats head coach Jon Paddock
The Pats are looking forward to having their missing players back after the tournament but are still hoping to gather some wins until then.
“Clearly we intend to win the next two or three games without them,” said Paddock. “But we’ve just been able to keep ourselves in a solid position without, you know, arguably the top of our defence. That in itself was impressive.”
Even with players gone, the Pats have been able to keep up competitively, no matter which players are on the ice.
“It just shows that we can still score without him,” said Howe.
Paddock said Bedard won’t be immediately returning to the ice when he is back from the juniors.
“Long before he left, Connor figured he was going to play the day he got back. That’s not happening,” Paddock said.
“We have a saying that rest is a weapon, and he needs some rest after this whether he believes it or not.”
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