Sixty-one.

This is the number of players who have been selected first in the history of the National Hockey League. This June, Connor Bedard added his name to that list.

These players are not just expected to be good. Number one overall picks are expected to be great, and Connor Bedard has had the entire NHL fan base behind him to become the next great player. They have compared him to Connor McDavid, the current captain of the Edmonton Oilers, who is known as the fastest skater in the league, Auston Matthews who has one of the best shots in the game, and even Cale Makar, who has some of the finest edges. 

Bedard has proven he is an exceptional player with his unreal stats in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Regina Pats, a junior hockey league that ranks 5th among all leagues in the U.S. In his 3 year career with the Regina Pats he played 134 games with 134 goals and 137 assists for a total of 271 points! With an average of 2.02 points, which is absolutely insane. 

This is a graph of Bedard vs. Former NHL first round draft picks including, Leon Draisatal, Brayden Scheen, Mathew Barzal, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Sam Reinhart, Kailer Yamamoto, Nolan patrick, Sven Bartschi, and Sam Steel. Bedard is represented as the light blue solid line, as the other players are represented as black dotted lines. In the seven seasons shown on this graph, he has dominated 5 of them, meaning he was putting up more points 71% of the time. These two seasons he was beaten by Leon Draisital, an assistant captain, who was picked third overall in the first round. He has multiple all star appearances and continues to finish at the top of the NHL leaderboard in goals, assists, and points. He has been dominating the NHL as one of the best players for the last 5 years. Bedard will become an exceptional player if he continues at this level in the NHL.

So the question begs, just how good can he be? He has had a better showing than 99.9% of people who have even tried to  play hockey, and has had better stats in the WHL than most players who have succeeded in the NHL. In his first 14 games in the NHL he has already tallied 9 goals and 4 assists for a total of 13 points on the season. 

This young player has the ability to become the next big thing in the NHL, and maybe one of the best of all time.