As of today, Bedard is a participant in normal practice once again. It looks as though he is taking contact, as well as taking part in line rushes. According to Scott Powers, however, he isn’t “full go” just yet.
The Blackhawks next game is Tuesday against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins and according to Scott Powers, Jeff Blashill did not rule out Tuesday as a possible return for Bedard.
Blackhawks forward lines with Bedard in practice:
Kantserov – Bedard – Kane
Bertuzzi – Frondell – Teravainen/Nazar
Smith – Greene – Greenway
Moore – Toninato – Donato
With Bedard slotted in to the lineup, things looks much better, and guys fall into their more appropriate places.
There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Bedard will play with Patrick Kane. If today’s practice lines are any indicator, it looks like Bedard will be centering Kane and Roman Kantserov.
Bedard was asked today about his potential return. According to Scott Powers, Bedard said he is feeling good, but there isn’t a specific game for his return yet. He also added, “I want to play as soon as possible” (via Charlie Roumeliotis on X)
F: Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Mitchell Marner, Brad Marchand, Sidney Crosby, Wyatt Johnston, Mark Scheifele & Beckett Sennecke.D: Matthew Schaefer, Evan Bouchard, Thomas Chabot & Noah Dobson.G: Scott Wedgewood & Jet Greaves.
That was the end of the scoring for the Bears, as the Crunch’s Scott Sabourin buried his 1st ofthe year. Brenden Furry’s goal late in the 2nd helped the Crunch to get within one of the Bears.The 3rd period stated with some great breakaways from Crystall and others, but Ryan Fanti stoodstrong.Declan C arlie tied it up late in the 3rd with a great feed form Ethan Gauthiere for Syracuse. Notlong into overtime, the 2nd shift of 3 on 3, Dominic James snapped one past Bjorklund for thewin.
“New GM Danny Briere got an absolute nightmare situation handed to him. No blue-chip prospects outside of Cutter Gauthier and a team that’s full of underperforming players. With Provorov already being moved it might be time to set the nukes off. Travis Konency, Travis Sanheim, Carter Hart, Joel Farabee, and Scott Laughton could all be in new homes once the Draft concludes. With such a deep draft the Flyers are in a prime position to reload the prospect drawer. Wednesday night concludes with these blockbuster deals. Konecny to Detroit in exchange for 17th overall and Cross Hanas. Hart and Laughton to Toronto in exchange for Joey Woll, Nick Robertson and 28th overall pick. Travis Sanheim to Buffalo for Henri Jokiharju and Philly gets it 2nd rounder back in this draft.” – Tyler Karoway
Moving into picks that were not good picks by the Leafs we will funnily enough stay in the 1988 draft where at pick number six the Leafs chose winger Scott Pearson. Pearson struggled with the Leafs and subsequently in his NHL career, during his tenure with the Leafs Pearson played in 62 games registering 16 points, five goals and eleven assists. Pearson would be traded part way through the 1990-1991 season to the Quebec Nordiques for little help in the return. Looking back at the 1988 draft the Leafs made an immense error in taking Pearson at six because in the next four picks at number eight, nine, and ten we would see Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind’Amour, and Teemu Selanne selected.
Scott Ratzlaff, Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL, #91-101 overall (3rd-4th Round).
Now for picks that did not go according to plan. We will start at the 2009 draft where Dallas held the right pick and selected centre Scott Glennie. Glennie had a lot of potential but his potential never came close to being matched. Glennie suited up in only one NHL game recording zero points. After that he was a consistent AHL player until his full retirement after the 2016-2017 season. In this draft there were actually a good amount of defensemen drafted after Glennie which the Stars could have used in this current age. Players like Nick Leddy, Ryan Ellis, Calvin De Haan, and Dmitri Kulikov, and along with forward Ryan O’Reilly there were plenty of more suitable options they could have chosen looking back.
Last player on this list for this article is Gord Kluzak. Kluzak was hampered with knee injuries that cut his career very short. Playing only 299 games and being a tougher defenseman who fights he did not have the career normally expected from a first overall selection. This draft had players like Brian Bellows, Scott Stevens, Phil Housley, and Dave Andreychuk. Given the short career, the Hall of Fame names drafted after him. This puts Kluzak on the list because if there were a redo button for this draft knowing the trajectory of all the players, Kluzak wouldn’t have been number one overall.
Sure there are some who did not live up to the expected NHL upside comparable to their P1/E60 rating such as Portland forward Nic Petan who had a 4.36 in his draft year or Scott Glennie of Brandon who came in at 4.23 during his draft year, but those cases are not the norm.
Abbotsford Canucks
Bakersfield Condors
Calgary Wranglers
Coachella Valley Firebirds
Colorado Eagles
Henderson Silver Knights
Iowa Wild
Manitoba Moose
Milwaukee Admirals
Ontario Reign
Rockford IceHogs
San Diego Gulls
San Jose Barracuda
Springfield Thunderbirds
Texas Stars
Tucson Roadrunners
Belleville Senators
Charlotte Checkers
Chicago Wolves
Cleveland Monsters
Grand Rapids Griffins
Hamilton Hammers
Hartford Wolf Pack
Hershey Bears
Laval Rocket
Lehigh Valley Phantoms
Providence Bruins
Rochester Americans
Syracuse Crunch
Toronto Marlies
Utica Comets
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
USA-ep.jpg)
