'Didn't have to overthink this' - Bedard tops McKenzie's pre-season draft ranking

by Bob McKenzie

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Connor Bedard is No. 1 on TSN’s Pre-Season Rankings for the 2023 NHL Draft.

Ten out of 10 scouts surveyed by TSN have the Regina Pats’ 5-foot-10, 185-pound centre at No. 1 to start the 2022-23 season for the Class of ‘23.

Was there ever any doubt? In a word, no.

“Didn’t have to overthink this,” one scout said.

From the moment the North Vancouver, B.C., native was granted exceptional status in 2020 (to enter the Western Hockey League as a 15 year old) and then burst onto the scene as a “double underager” who scored seven goals in seven games at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship in 2021, the giddy anticipation has been that the 2023 NHL Draft would be the Connor Bedard Sweepstakes.

And here we are.

That isn’t to say there are not a lot of unanswered questions about Bedard.

Just how good is he? How good will he become? In the pantheon of great, young NHL superstar talent, where will he fit in?

Could he be a generational talent, for which the absurdly high bar that is Connor McDavid is now the measuring stick?

Does he have what it takes to be the next big scoring thing in the NHL, ascending to a universe that includes much bigger and physically dominant players such as Alexander Ovechkin and Auston Matthews?

And given how the 2022 NHL Draft unfolded — highly anticipated consensus No. 1 centre Shane Wright, the last player prior to Bedard to be granted exceptional status, falling to fourth overall on draft day — will Bedard even go first overall on June 28 in Nashville?

“Well,” said one NHL head scout, “I suppose anything is possible, but when you look at how [Bedard] shoots the puck, his innate ability to score goals and you project him as an elite goal scorer who