NHL should market Connor Bedard properly

It's rare that a talent like Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard enters the NHL and it's important the league makes the most of the buzz around the prospect. Watch the full Zone Time on our YouTube channel or listen on the podcast feed.

Video Transcript

OMAR: --thing.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sam, I know you agree with Omar, but I really want you to speak your piece on this.

SAMANTHA CHANG: I just-- Like, look, you either want this to be a global sport with as much passion from fans and as much reach as the NBA does or you don't. And, like, this idea that-- Listen, this kid has been hyped up his entire life. Like, we don't need to pretend like this is all new to him, he's suddenly getting all this press.

He has always had this press. He had this much press before the draft. He had this much press the entire last year. So did Sidney Crosby. Like, I remember the year leading up to Crosby being drafted. Like, this isn't any different than that.

And the only difference between NHL superstars who are supposed to be generational and supposed to be the face of the game and the stars in other leagues is that other leagues happily lean into this, and they don't-- And, like, I tweeted, like, that this conversation is the epitome of a second-tier league's mentality.

I had someone be like, oh, the NBA is having these conversations. Everybody has conversations about whether generational players get too much coverage. I was like, that's not my point. It's not like, are we calling them generational too soon? It's are they getting too much press? Are they getting too much attention?

And the idea that, like, even Taylor Hall's comment about, like, I think you guys are doing too much, like, it's too much pressure on him, if you want to be that superstar, if you want to be that standout, if you want to have those advertising deals and dollars, and you want to have that, like, next-level, rarefied-air, Michael-Jordan-type branding, this is the business case for it. Like, you need to have that press. If people aren't talking about you, no brand is gonna give you that much money.

OMAR: Mm-hmm. You can't have it both ways.

SAMANTHA CHANG: And, so, like, I just don't understand. Like, what are we talking about here? What is the issue?

OMAR: (LAUGHING) Exactly.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Avry, you can go in.

SAMANTHA CHANG: People are too excited about you. You're too good.

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: It makes me shake my head, because we have Connor Bedard being talked about on "First Take," and we already know how hard it is to get any hockey talk on "First Take" at all, no matter what hockey topic. That's a major thing.

We've got him on ESPN. We've gotten all these interviews. And to say, no, it's too much, the NHL is still the fourth sport in North America. Don't you want to eventually get out of being number four, or in some markets, probably fix or six, in some markets in America.

Like, don't you want to grow? And you mentioned it, Sam. Don't you want brands to care about hockey? To say it's too much, and you guys are doing too much, they're doing their jobs. You should want the hype on this kid.

You don't see, in the NBA, you don't see people saying, oh, there's too much on Victor Wembanyama. No, hold back in San Antonio. No, it doesn't exist. You don't see it in baseball towards Shohei Ohtani. You didn't see them say, no, stop talking about Shohei. Like, it doesn't happen in any other sport but hockey, and then they wonder why the sport, in a lot of markets, is irrelevant.

It blows me away, people still think like that, and are surprised hockey isn't growing in certain areas.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: The one thing I'll say about Conner Bedard is it's really-- And it's easy to forget about that with so many other prospects, like, he's barely 18 years old. He's a kid. And, like, yes, he's had that pressure and press on him since, like, day one, but, like, it's very different having people show up to your Western Hockey League games, compared to being in the NHL, and your first few games are Pittsburgh, Boston, Montreal, Toronto.

Toronto, he didn't even speak at Toronto, and then you're gonna have Colorado, and then your very first game at home is gonna be in Vegas. I think we the fact that the league is trying to market him and he's doing all these interviews is great. Like, you need this for a player of his caliber, especially if he's gonna pan out to whatever expectations that we've set for him. It's gonna be great.

The one thing I will concede on is the fact that he is a kid, and, you know, we don't know how kids handle stuff like that. It takes them a while for them to adjust to being under the spotlight and the pressure. That's the one little thing I'll concede about. I'll think about that, and I try to think about that with how we answer certain questions and how the personality shines through.

And I'll hold out hope that, as the cameras start to go away a little bit, as the season goes on, you know, he'll be a little bit more comfortable with media, and he'll be a lot more fun to have conversations with us in media. Selfishly hoping that happens around the time he shows up in Calgary in late January.

But as I realize that, I believe that's-- That's a Saturday night game, so it's going to be on "Hockey Night in Canada," so, so much for less pressure.

But all that to say, like, you know, I think it comes with the territory. I agree with you guys wholeheartedly. It comes with the territory of the talent that has been afforded to him. He's been blessed to have it. Drafted number one overall.

Look, you're gonna have to deal with the fact that you have those expectations thrust on you, man, and if you deliver, more people are gonna want to talk to you, more people are gonna want to be around you.

Hey, maybe Connor Bedard gets his own "People" magazine feature, and then they'll quote us in the article. I don't know. Like--

OMAR: That'd be cool.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: It comes with the territory, man. But I'm also willing to-- And, look, maybe I didn't think about it for some of the other guys that came before him, but I am also willing to give him some grace, because he is a teenager.

OMAR: Well, to that point, like, I even think about-- Like, I was thinking about, like, did Matthews have to go with in his draft year, but I remember, like, that was when [INAUDIBLE] when he had his whole, like, no-rookies-can-talk-to-the-press thing.

So, like, even after his first game, where, you know, he scored the four goals, good times, like, I don't think he could get any of, like, the intermission interviews. He couldn't speak to the media until after the game. So, yeah, that is something to think about.

But, like, I think that's more on the side of, like, thinking about Bedard the person. But I feel like, as the league, like, this can't be a bad thing, right?

Avry, you mentioned the media talking about Bedard on "First Take." Like, I wouldn't be surprised if the same people who are complaining about, like, all the coverage of Bedard, like, everywhere are the same people who are upset when Stephen A. Smith said that the Rangers didn't matter in the conversation of who was the next New York team to win a championship.

If you want the NHL to be considered in those conversations on these shows, then, yeah, again, you can't have it both ways. So, again, I'm happy this is happening--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I want a follow-up to this.

OMAR: Yeah, yeah, I'm just happy this is happening.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: No, no, you finish-- Finish your point. Finish your point.

OMAR: No, that was pretty much it, yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK, because what I have to say, and this is just off of my observations of what I see and all that, I think, on our podcast, and amongst other people who are maybe around our age, maybe a little bit more forward-thinking, we are in that group of people who think that, you know, the league needs to be marketed better, the stars need to be marketed better.

I think it was Omar who mentioned something about how there are fans who are like, oh, they're complaining about the lack of marketing for players, and then it's happening, and then they're all like, oh, no, it's happening too much. This is just me. I'm starting to think that those are just two different groups of people altogether.

And the more I see guys getting marketed, and the game trying to grow, and trying to at least make attempts at being progressive, the more I see people who really just care about their own team, and are just kind of stuck in their own ways, and see Connor Bedard getting hyped up, and they're just like, what's the point?

I don't think-- Like, I don't think the people who were leaning one way on this are thinking the other way. I just think that-- And that's a bit of a problem with some of the fan bases in hockey, where they get so set in their ways, and I'm not gonna necessarily say it's just older people, but, you know, yes, they're definitely in that group, but I'm not gonna say it's just them.

But there are people who don't care about the growth of the game, and being on ESPN, and having Stephen A. Smith talking about it. Some people just want to open their radio station, live in their own little bubble, Edmonton Sports Talk, or TSN 690, or TSN 1050, or whichever station's in Vancouver. They just want their people, and that's it. And that's not a good thing.

But I feel, more so than any of the other big four sports, hockey is super regional, and as long as a lot of the fans think that way, it's going to hurt the league. It's going to hurt the product of the sport.

And, so, when you see people go on social media and say, well, I'm tired of SportsNet ramming Connor Bedard down my throat, knowing that they only have, like, maybe two or three other games where they could have him nationally, like, when you see that, like, I cringe a bit, because I'm like, ugh, you don't want growth. You just care about your own team.

And I get it. There's a certain extent to that that's fine. But at the same time, like, I don't know. Like, it's tough to say it's problematic, but, like, I cringe at that, because that's not the thinking that is going to elevate the league to where a lot of people would want it to be.

And when we talk about a lot of those people who think it's, like, too much coverage, I think there's a lot of people in that group who are in this faction of fans who they don't give a damn about money, and growth, and all that. They just care about their team, and that's it.