Bedard, Crosby Face Off as NHL Season Starts: By the Numbers
The NHL season kicks off Tuesday night with a tripleheader on ESPN that begins with the Nashville Predators at the Tampa Bay Lightning, and concludes with the Seattle Kraken traveling to Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights will raise their Stanley Cup banner.
But the primetime slot is reserved for a pair of teams that missed the playoffs last year and won only 40% of their games.
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As the Chicago Blackhawks face the Pittsburgh Penguins, all eyes will be focused on the much-anticipated debut of junior hockey phenom Connor Bedard, who will face off against his childhood idol Sidney Crosby—and we can only hope the two coaches literally let the two face off to start the game.
The last NHL prospect with so much buzz heading into a season was likely Connor McDavid in 2015, and before that, Crosby; Wayne Gretzky himself called Crosby “The Next One.”
Bedard and Crosby both led Canada to gold at the World Junior Championship and earned CHL Player of the Year and CHL Top Scorer honors during their final season of junior hockey.
ESPN is pulling out all of the stops for the telecast, even mic’ing up Bedard during the game.
Here are the numbers behind the two generational talents.
1: Crosby was the NHL’s top overall pick in 2005, 18 years before Bedard was drafted No. 1 overall. That year, the Penguins won a draft lottery that featured all 30 teams because the previous season had no standings, as it was canceled due to a labor dispute.
2: Players born in British Columbia selected No. 1 overall, including Bedard and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011.
1.26: Crosby’s career points per game is eighth all-time in the NHL and second among active players behind McDavid’s 1.49—Gretzky leads at 1.92, a tick ahead of Mario Lemieux (1.88).
3: Stanley Cup titles for Crosby, who also has two Olympic gold medals.
4: NHL games featuring the Blackhawks as the road team that rank among the 10 most in-demand tickets this season, per StubHub data. The team’s trip to Boston tomorrow ranks second behind only the Winter Classic based on secondary market ticket sales.
8: Players, including Bedard, granted “exceptional status” while competing at the highest level of Canadian Junior Hockey as an underage player—fellow No. 1 picks McDavid and John Tavares also received exceptions. Bedard was the first in the WHL given the nod.
11.5%: Odds for Chicago to win the NHL draft lottery and right to select Bedard. It was only the third best, but the club beat out Anaheim (18.5%) and Columbus (13.5%), which had better odds.
12: No. 1 overall picks who scored a goal in their NHL debut. Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews was the last in 2016, when he scored four times. Crosby is one of 21 players selected first overall who recorded at least one point in their first game.
16: Straight seasons in the playoffs for the Penguins and Crosby before missing last year.
18: Bedard’s age as of July. He was born two weeks before Crosby was drafted by the Penguins. He will be the youngest Blackhawks player to make his NHL debut since Eddie Olczyk in 1984. Crosby was a month younger than Bedard for his debut.
21: Crosby’s age when he became the youngest captain to lead his team to a Stanley Cup in 2008. He turned 36 in August.
102: Points for Crosby during his rookie year. He’s tallied at least 100 points in six of his 18 seasons, with a high of 120 during the 2006-07 season.
143: Points Bedard scored last season in 57 games in the WHL, including 71 goals and 72 assists. It was the highest WHL point tally in nearly two decades. Crosby averaged 2.71 points per game in his final junior season.
253%: Percentage increase for Blackhawks home game ticket sales on StubHub versus last season. Chicago’s home opener against the Golden Knights on Oct. 21 is the fourth most in-demand ticket of the season on StubHub.
1,502: Career points for Crosby, including 550 goals and 952 assists.
2007: The last and only year that Chicago ever had the No. 1 pick. The team selected Patrick Kane, who led the team to three Stanley Cup wins between 2010 and 2015 before he was traded to the Rangers in February.
17,167: Average attendance at Blackhawks’ games last year, 5,500 fans below its peak a decade earlier.
$2.5 million: Season-ticket revenue for the Blackhawks in the first 90 minutes after the team won the NHL draft lottery in May. It generated more than $5 million in revenue during the first 12 hours.
$5 million: Crosby’s peak annual endorsement earnings from brands including longtime partners Adidas, CCM, Tim Hortons and Gatorade.
$13.35 million: Value of Bedard’s three-year contract, which is capped by the NHL’s entry-level rules.
$104.4 million: Value of Crosby’s 12-year contract signed in 2012. It was front-loaded and is worth $3 million both this year and next, when the contract expires.
$230 million: Estimated total salary and endorsements for Crosby during his first 18 seasons.
$900 million: Value of the Penguins in Sportico’s 2022 NHL team valuations. It ranked 16th among the league’s 32 teams.
$1.7 billion: Value of the Blackhawks, third highest behind the Maple Leafs ($2.12 billion) and Rangers ($2.01 billion).
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