Connor Bedard has been highly anticipated as the number 1 draft pick for months. With his stellar performance in the CHL playing for the Regina Pats, scoring 271 points in 134 games, its not hard to see why and today, was the big day. The 2023 NHL Draft Lottery, where we all would find out who the lucky team was that would get a shot at Bedard. The entire thing went exactly as predicted, no surprises until number 3. As they were cutting to commercial, Kevin Weekes completely blew it as he prematurely revealed that the Columbus Blue Jackets had fallen in the draft to number 3 leaving Anaheim and Chicago as the 2 remaining teams. Completely spoiling the whole point of this show they put on and immediately, the internet blew up with claims of the NHL being rigged. It wasn't a good look. But here’s the deal, this whole thing is likely just a show if I had to guess. I dont think this proves in any real way that it is rigged, it just shows that this was a production. The results were already known in advance and they simply just got ahead of the script. They were supposed to go to commercial and instead, he went straight to the next pick. Brutal as it was, after coming back they didnt even mention it and the show went on as we found out that the Chicago Blackhawks, coming off a dynasty with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were now well on their way to starting the next one with Connor Bedard.
#hockey #nhl #NHLdraft #chicagoblackhawks