On Wednesday, June 28, the Chicago Blackhawks’ future took a turn for the better. The Chicago Blackhawks selected Connor Bedard on this particular evening, kicking off the team’s future.
Since quite some time, Connor Bedard has been widely regarded as the best overall prospect. It would be fascinating to see where EA Sports has him listed for NHL 24 given that his NHL debut is scheduled for October.
For NHL players and supporters, the NHL Entry Draft is a significant event. Potential NHL legends are introduced on this particular night. New faces will be appearing in the NHL video game franchise as more players are selected for the NHL each year. NHL 24 won’t be published until sometime between the end of September and the beginning of October, but no specific date has been announced.
Connor Bedard will be a playable player for the Chicago Blackhawks in NHL 24 when it is released. It is true that. The only thing that is still unknown is the overall grade this prospective Superstar will receive for his first season. It is typically extremely difficult to forecast how EA Sports will rank rookies. Since they have never competed in the NHL, it is difficult to anticipate how their style will fare there. In order to be cautious, EA typically gives them a somewhat low overall with space for improvement.
What overall rating will EA Sports grant rookie Connor Bedard in NHL 24?
Connor McDavid is now the top player in the NHL. McDavid was chosen during the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, and NHL 16 marked his first appearance in an NHL video game. Connor McDavid received an 82 overall rating as a rookie, which shows how kind EA Sports was to him. Given the hoopla around McDavid and the supposedly generational skill he possessed, it made perfect sense that he received one of the best rookie ratings ever recorded in an NHL video game straight out of the gate.
Another star was created as the first overall choice in the NHL Entry Draft the very next year, in 2016. Auston Matthews was a top prospect chosen by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Auston Matthews lived up to the high expectations that had been placed on him by bringing his talent to the NHL. In NHL 17, where EA Sports was less kind but still gave him a respectable 77 overall, he made his debut in a video game. EA Sports made a wise choice in giving him the opportunity to develop because they understood he wasn’t better than McDavid.
Auston Matthews gained nine overall points before the completion of the 2016–2017 NHL season, finishing with an NHL 17 overall rating of 86. That simply serves to highlight how much he developed and dazzled in his rookie campaign at the age of 19.
This brings up Connor Bedard and his potential NHL 24 rating. Since Connor McDavid in 2015, Bedard has been the NHL prospect receiving the most attention. This young person is thought to possess generational talent that has the power to completely transform a franchise. Many people believe that in terms of buzz and prospect ranking, he is immediately behind McDavid and in front of Matthews. That gives Blackhawk fans something to look forward to for sure, even though it doesn’t guarantee that he will put up stats like these two do every year.
He will likely receive a rating from EA Sports that is right in the middle of McDavid and Matthews, in my opinion. There is nothing else that makes sense. With that said, I predict that Connor Bedard’s rookie overall will be an 80. That would provide him the deference he earned before to the draft, but it does not also grant him an absurdly high grade. Bedard has the opportunity to develop and show what he is capable of accomplishing in his rookie year with an overall score of 80.
If you look at the NHL 23 ratings as of right now, Connor McDavid is the player with the highest rating with a score of 95 overall, and Auston Matthews is the guy with the second-highest score with a score of 94 overall. There are huge things in store for Connor Bedard in both his NHL career and his NHL video game career if he genuinely lives up to his promise. That being said, if everything works out as planned for Connor Bedard, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him eventually reach a 94 or 95 overall in NHL video games.