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 after the season opener against the new Utah Hockey Club – lunch with his father, Tom, before catching an afternoon flight home, and then dinner in Park City with the boys.

But here he is, fresh from breakfast, dressed in 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 often than Bedard did 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 unusual. Complete informal 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 cover ourselves in glory in those claustrophobic environments.

“It’s hard to show personality when you’re asked the same questions over and over again,” Bedard said with a wry smile.

But now that he’s a second-year pro, a crafty veteran at the ripe old age of 19, could we see more of that personality shine through? He shows it off on Instagram videos and makes football picks with his friends. He kicks off snarky NHL commercials about the perceived shortcomings of Gen Z. And he starts doing interviews like this every now and then. It’s not exactly his style to be big and bombastic off the ice, but his comfort level in the NHL and with stardom is clearly increasing.

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

You are on course for 164 points this season. Anything less than that will be a disappointment, I guess?

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

One of the things I heard leading up to the draft was that you are “obsessed with greatness.” I’ve heard the same thing said about Nathan MacKinnon in exactly the same way: You have a special mentality: you want to be great. Is that just an innate thing that you have, where you can’t accept anything less than that?

I think so. Even as a child. I was 5 years old and this was basically all I wanted to do. I think that’s it – it’s obviously a passion and I want to be the best I can be. But it’s just what I want to do in general, and I want to try to better myself, and I don’t want to look back one day and feel like I didn’t reach my full potential.

What is that full potential? What to do You Do you see it as your ceiling?

Don’t know. I think I can be pretty good. But we’ll see. I have confidence in myself and that confidence comes from the work I put in. I know that I will not deceive myself and that ability to be the best I can be. How good is that? Who knows. But I think it’s pretty good.

It is so typical for a hockey player to be modest and downplay things on the outside. But all 700 guys in the NHL have to have this unwavering confidence and 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 hard level to match.” You have to have that attitude, right?

Certainly. If you go there thinking you’re not going to do anything good, then you’ve already lost the battle. I have a lot of confidence 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 show it. In my mind before a match I just go out and have fun, but I also know I want to make a difference in the game. And I know I can do it.

You already told me you’re not going to tell me what your goals are for the season, but do you have career goals like that? Do you have round numbers in your head that say, “This is what I need to do to reach my potential?”

That is so long. I think everyone’s goal in hockey since they were kids has been to win a Stanley Cup. And that is the most important thing for everyone. So if that happens, this would obviously be the pinnacle. It is difficult to look at an entire career and attach numbers to it.

“I’d never tell you, but I definitely have things on my mind.”

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

— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) September 20, 2024

So you don’t just think about 1,000 goals or something like that.

(Laughs) No, no, I don’t think so.

However, is that part of this process? 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 and working its way up. Learning to lose, learning to deal with two or three games without a goal – is that difficult?

Yes, losing sucks. I think you can ask anyone who was on our team last year, it wasn’t very fun. Especially towards the end. You’re out and you still enjoy playing and there are things you play for, but we’re professional athletes and we want to play to win. That was really frustrating. I can definitely be a bit of a baby going through all those losses. But even if we lose the last game, we’ll be right back. That will be something where we show that we have become much better at it.

Jonathan Toews was also a big baby when he first came 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 ebb and flow of the sport.

Yes, yes, definitely. In my first year (in juniors) we lost quite a few games. And I remember I had a rough start. But after that in the juniors things went more smoothly. We had a better second year as a team and I had a good second year myself, I think (laughs). It’s definitely different when you come in and you’re just playing against the best players in the world. But that’s what’s so fun about hockey, the competitiveness and the challenge of competing against the best every night.

You have to be careful too, right? Patrick Kane, over the last few years here when things started to go bad, he was always concerned about bringing in young players and developing losing habits and a losing mentality. How do you combat that when Kyle (Davidson) plays a long game? How do you learn not to accept the loss, but to understand the loss? 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 think in the summer you can maybe look at the long term, but not really as players. You just go out there and try to win and you try to play your best.

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

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

Can you be such a captain? Some captains are the big, open, fun guys like Foligno, but some are very different.

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

With all the turnover on the roster, I’m sure it’s exciting to bring in all these quality players. But you also lost some of your close friends. Taylor Raddysh was one of your best friends, he’s walking 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, but you (never) think about it too much when you’re playing. You just think you’re going to play with these guys forever. ‘Rads’ and ‘Twisty’, I would eat with them every time on the road. I was close with those two boys. It’s hard to see everyone go. But they are in good situations and you are happy that they are getting opportunities. But it’s hard and you just keep in touch.

So do you like being an NHL player? Is this what you dreamed it would be?

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

So 40 goals or 50 goals this year, what is the goal?

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

Okay. Had to try it.

(Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)