2023 NHL Draft: Connor Bedard watch

Connor Bedard, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft, is in his third season with Regina of the Western Hockey League. The 17-year-old center, No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's midterm ranking of North American skaters presented by BioSteel, was granted exceptional status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old. Each Wednesday, NHL.com will have an update on Bedard leading up to the NHL Draft, which will be held in Nashville on June 28-29.

Connor Bedard has spent most of the past two months focusing on the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship and the 2023 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game.
But now that those events have moved into the rearview mirror, the goal is simple: Get Regina deep into the Western Hockey League playoffs.
"We want to win in Regina," Bedard said. "We've been playing well as of late. … We want to keep that going and excited to get back and get to work."
Regina is 4-5-1 in its past 10 games following a 6-5 overtime loss at Calgary on Tuesday. The Pats (22-21-3) are seventh in the Eastern Conference with 47 points, tied with Swift Current (22-20-3); the top eight teams in the conference reach the playoffs.
Bedard is doing his part. In his first game back from the Top Prospects Game, he had a hat trick and an assist in a 6-4 loss to Medicine Hat on Sunday, and then had a goal and two assists in the loss to Calgary.

The hat trick against Medicine Hat was his fifth of the season, and the goal against Calgary gave him 21 during a 10-game goal streak. He also extended his point streak to 34 games (43 goals, 45 assists).
With 22 games remaining, Bedard has a chance to match the WHL record streak of 56 games (108 points) set by Jeff Nelson of Prince Albert in 1990-91. The longest streak by a Regina player is 47 games, shared by teammates Jock Callander (141 points) and Wally Schreiber (99 points) in 1981-82.
Bedard, though, isn't spending time thinking about goals, assists or point streaks.
"Just focus on what's going on and what I can control," he said. "For me, I'm in a team setting, which is good. You have goals every day, you're practicing with each other, trying to get better. For me, my big thing is just taking it day by day and trying to improve every day. I've still got 22**