History shows Blackhawks don't need Connor Bedard to be the best in his generation

The Connor Bedard-Macklin Celebrini comparisons aren't going to stop, with both players wearing the "generational talent" label along with the fact that they are back-to-back first-overall picks. The Sharks' Celebrini may appear to have figured out the NHL faster than Bedard, putting up legendary numbers in just his second season, while it seems to have taken Bedard two full years before he started figuring things out.

Celebrini, who has 26 points in 17 games, also has the Sharks on the right trajectory, as they are a solid 8-6-3. Seeing the Sharks go from one of the worst teams in hockey to at least a middle-of-the-road team in just Celebrini's second season, while the same is going on in Bedard's third for the Blackhawks, is another reason to believe Celebrini could end up as the better player. 

The good news is it doesn't, nor should it, matter. If you polled 100,000 hockey fans whether Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, or Alex Ovechkin were the best player of their generation, do you think Kane is finishing first or second in that poll?

Not when Ovechkin became the first player to score 900 goals and Crosby's production has never dipped below a point per game in any of his first 20 seasons. But Kane, like Crosby, won three Stanley Cups. Even if he's not quite on the same rung as Crosby or Ovechkin, who have three Cups and one Cup, respectively, Kane's still a Hall of Famer, and he helped fuel a dynasty.

History shows that these comparisons mean little as long as the players getting compared to one another are winning. Nobody is going to look back and say, "Well, Kane wasn't as good as Crosby or Ovechkin." They're going to say, "Kane won three Stanley Cups and was arguably the Blackhawks' most important puzzle piece."

There doesn't need to be a comparison if Connor Bedard wins Stanley Cups

The only possible way for fans to lament on the entire Connor Bedard-Macklin Celebrini comparison is if Bedard doesn't win a Cup with the Blackhawks and Celebrini brings at least one to San Jose. Even if Bedard doesn't win a Cup, it's still tough to justify feeling down about the entire situation, because the Blackhawks never chose between Bedard and Celebrini.

They had the first-overall pick in 2023, Connor Bedard was the best player in the draft, and the Blackhawks did what everyone expected them to. In 2024, the Sharks had the first pick and did the same thing. They took Celebrini with the top pick because he was far and away the best player in that draft. So the Hawks, picking second in 2024, never had a chance to draft Celebrini in the first place.

Chances are, both players will lead their respective teams to deep playoff runs and appearances in the Stanley Cup Final. They could even wind up playing against one another in the Western Conference Final. And if Bedard beats Celebrini in the playoffs, Conference Final or not, it's not going to matter who enjoyed a breakout season in their second year or who enjoyed one in their third year.

There are a lot of hockey teams who would love to have someone like Connor Bedard

If there is one common denominator between Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, it's that they are players you build a team around. It's no different from the Capitals building around Alex Ovechkin, the Penguins building around Sidney Crosby, or the Blackhawks building around Patrick Kane.

Kane had elite numbers, but they never matched Crosby's productivity or Ovechkin's record-breaking goal-scoring. Plenty of teams, from the moment Kane entered the league, would have craved a player like him to build around. The same goes for players like Bedard and Celebrini.

In the end, they're both rare talents, and they're showing off just how well they can carry their teams. Bedard has 26 points in 17 games, and the second-most productive player in Chicago is Tyler Bertuzzi, with 15. Swing over to San Jose, and Will Smith, who has 17 points, is second to Celebrini's 26 points. 

That's saying a lot about the potential both of these players have. The Blackhawks have one of them in Bedard, and he's going to take this team far as his career progresses. So if it took him one more season to break out than it did Macklin Celebrini, it's not a big deal. He is, hands down, an elite talent.