There’s a little over a week left in his amateur career, but Connor Bedard is still taking home awards. The 17-year-old forward is the inaugural recipient of the IIHF Male Player of the Year award.
Bedard has three IIHF gold medals (U18, U20, U20) and, as the release states, had “perhaps the greatest single World Junior Championship tournament” in history, with 23 points—nine more than his closest competitor.
The soon-to-be Chicago Blackhawks forward secured 31.8% of the votes for the award, with Latvian goaltender Arturs Silovs coming in second place at 19.6%. Silovs led Latvia on a historic bronze-medal run at the recent World Championships, posting a .921 save percentage in ten games.
It’s hard to have a more impressive draft year than Bedard. He won or was named:
- CHL First All-Star Team
- CHL Player of the Year
- CHL Top Draft Prospect
- CHL Top Scorer
- U20 All-Star Team
- U20 Best Forward
- U20 Most Points
- U20 Most Valuable Player
- WHL First All-Star Team
- WHL Most Points
- WHL Player of the Year
The hype machine continues to be fueled by this latest award, and sets a precedent for future IIHF participants.
He will get the Hart in his 1st year, no doubt about it.
i hope, forsure getting the Calder which McJesus and Crosby both didn’t get in their respective rookie seasons