Connor Bedard’s NHL profession is off to a quick begin. He’s the clear favourite to win the 2024 Calder Trophy, and his numbers evaluate fairly favorably to the participant who received that award a decade in the past, Nathan MacKinnon.

By his first 30 NHL video games, Bedard has delivered on the expectations of a No. 1 total decide. Bedard leads the Chicago Blackhawks in targets (12), assists (14), and factors (26), and he already seems like a future celebrity, particularly once you have a look at what MacKinnon did as a rookie.

Again in 2013-14, MacKinnon obtained his first style of NHL hockey with the Colorado Avalanche. By his first 30 video games, MacKinnon tallied six targets, 12 assists, and 18 factors. These are stable numbers, however they do not fairly evaluate with what Bedard has already achieved up to now.

In all equity to MacKinnon, he solely obtained extra snug as his rookie marketing campaign progressed, and he wound up tallying 18 targets and 45 factors in his closing 52 video games. That powered him to a Calder Trophy win, and MacKinnon has developed into one of many absolute best gamers within the league. Simply a few years in the past, MacKinnon led the Avs in scoring as they rolled to a Stanley Cup victory.

If Bedard can progress in addition to MacKinnon, the sky is the restrict for him, particularly since he had not performed beneath the perfect circumstances this season. Bedard has performed so much with Philipp Kurashev and Nick Foligno, who’ve been fantastic, however they don’t seem to be top-line caliber gamers. As soon as the Hawks enhance the expertise round Bedard, his manufacturing will solely enhance.

In the interim, Bedard makes an in any other case horrible staff very enjoyable to look at, and it will likely be fascinating to see simply how gaudy his rookie numbers get.