Saskatchewan hockey fans might be able to guess Connor Bedard’s National Hockey League (NHL) fate after Monday’s lottery.
The NHL lottery Monday night will determine the selection order for the first 16 picks of the 2023 draft.
According to a release from the NHL, the Anaheim Ducks have the best odds at 25.5 per cent, to take the first pick, followed by the Columbus Blue Jackets at 13.5 per cent. The Chicago Blackhawks are sitting at 11.5 per cent, the San Jose Sharks at 9.5 per cent, and the Montreal Canadians at 8.5 per cent.
Generational star Bedard is projected by most to go number one in the draft to continue his career in the big leagues.
Regina Pats play by play announcer Dante De Caria said there hasn’t been this much hype around a lottery since 2015.
“I think the last time that we saw this much hype around a player going in a lottery, not the NHL draft but the lottery, with the NHL draft over a month away, was probably Connor McDavid,” said De Caria.
Bedard played 141 games during his WHL career and scored 144 goals and a total of 291 points.
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In 2022-23, Bedard had a season for the record books.
He led the WHL in multiple categories, including goals with 71, points with 142 and assists with 72. He also led the way in shots on goal with 360, points per game at 2.51 and goals per game at 1.24, and finished tied for first in game-winning goals with 11 — all while only playing 57 games.
“It’s tough to put a comparison on him just because this is a guy that shoots 500 to 1000 pucks a day and has worked on his shot more than any player in the most recent history of the NHL,” said De Caria. “It’s really tough to describe because you don’t often see that in a 17-year-old kid and I felt over the course of the season, that that actually kind of trickled down to a lot of the players on his team to where everybody was kind of acting like that because they look up to him.”
The first round of the draft will happen June 28 and 29 in Nashville.
— with files from Global News ‘Andrew Benson and Jacob Carr
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