If you read any casual scouting reports on presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL draft Connor Bedard, the superlatives jump off the page and for good reason.

He's been a brilliant junior player since he was 15 years old and he's racked up points and accolades like Ash collects Pokémon: he's got to get them all. Scouting analysis tells us a lot of things, but what it doesn't tell us is the way a player of his ilk is formed.

Bedard gets compared to Connor McDavid simply because he's the most recent player of that caliber to hit the draft. Before him, it was Sidney Crosby. Generational talents don't generally have peers, particularly at their age. What we can do to explain Bedard is to take his abilities and draw comparisons to the players we've been watching in recent years.

Trying to piece together the kind of player Bedard is going to be is tricky. We're trying to make the intangible tangible and that's difficult to do because Bedard is producing points against players who aren't NHL caliber. But a player of his ability will be able to do similar things at the next level because he's just that good.

We'll do our part by trying to explain him by picking out those around the league we see in particular parts of his play.

Stickhandling: Tage Thompson

Watching countless Connor Bedard highlight reels can lead you to see a lot of different ways he goes about beating his opponents. There are times he makes them look silly for even attempting to defend him. It's the type of thing that elite talent can do multiple times per night.

When you look closely at how Bedard handles the puck going into traffic in the offensive zone and the way he's able to move it wide around defenders without necessarily altering his route, it's impressive. His ability to dangle the puck to maintain possession and create a scoring chance out of nowhere look like the kinds of plays Sabres center Tage Thompson has become renowned for.

Whether the defender is sprawling or getting low to defend against a pass or shot, the moment they stop moving their feet, Thompson is able to make them look foolish for trying. Bedard has shown this capability as well.

Whether that chance is a sudden wrist shot or a deke and shot or a pass off to a wide-open teammate, that scoring opportunity is usually a very good one.

Shooting Ability: Auston Matthews

Shooting the puck is a fascinating skill to watch, player-to-player. Every player has their own quirks, tendencies and tricks when it comes to delivering the shot that will best help them create a goal.

Some guys love to tee up a slap shot and let it fly so raw power and velocity leads to a goal. Others prefer the suddenness and accuracy of a wrist shot. And there are different sets of players who will use a combination of those along with deceptive angles and unpredictability with shot timing to make goalies uneasy.

This is how Auston Matthews is able to beat goalies with regularity. His shot is sneaky and he can fire it suddenly out of a toe-drag or deke with incredible accuracy. The motion he makes while carrying the puck can sometimes lull a defender to sleep thinking there's another move coming.

Bedard has shown similar ability in the WHL. Part of what makes Bedard so dangerous is he doesn't telegraph what he's going to do. Everyone has tendencies, but Bedard's skill level demands you respect everything he can do while also needing to be assertive in defending him closely so he can't set up a teammate. It's a thankless job that leads to a lot of frustration and will continue to be like that at the NHL level.

Bedard being able to let a shot loose from any angle at any moment in the offensive zone is what will make him ultra dangerous in the NHL.

Playmaking: Clayton Keller

I understand this comparison comes a bit out of left field for Connor Bedard, but watching his highlights from this season and comparing his statistics with those of NHL players that are close to his size (5'10" and under), Clayton Keller stuck out in a big way.

When you watch how Keller plays in the offensive zone, do so with the realization that he's Arizona's No. 1 scorer by a long measure. So much more of the puck finds him because he's the Coyotes' main threat and he's usually shadowed by one or two defenders. It's up to him to find a way through and very often does.

Keller's ability to find open teammates is really impressive because of the way he uses his creativity to complete plays. Backhand passes zipped from the corner to the slot is no problem and neither are sauce passes across the attack zone. His vision allows him to spot teammates cutting to the far side of the goal for a tap-in.

Keller's point totals aren't overly gaudy in the league-wide view, but they're beyond impressive because of the team he's playing for and the lack of overall depth Arizona has. In essence, Keller is doing a lot more with a lot less and that's something Bedard will get to experience in his rookie season with Chicago. Taylor Hall will be happy at least.

Hockey Intelligence: Connor McDavid

Generational talents have to have some traits in common despite their differences.

When it comes to Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard, McDavid is a little taller and he's one of, if not the, fastest skaters in the NHL. Bedard is a little shorter and not as outright fast as McDavid, but when it comes to reading the game and anticipating situations, they're equal scholars of the game.

What helps make McDavid and Bedard have such success is they're able to play the game at a mental speed very few others can. Watching how both players attack the game offensively shows how they're on another level.

It's not just the raw intelligence, it's the speed at which they do it as well. It's as if they're supercomputers and opposing players are abacuses. McDavid and Bedard are doing quantum physics while opponents are doing basic algebra. It goes back to Wayne Gretzky explaining how he was able to get ahead because he was two moves ahead of everyone.

It's not like being a psychic on skates, it's just they know what they're capable of doing and the likelihood of others being able to keep up with that is really low. It's these powers that McDavid and Bedard both possess and it's what will keep the two of them linked until they're done with hockey.

Quickness: Mitch Marner

There's a difference between raw skating speed and quickness.

This isn't semantics. Speed is genuinely how fast a guy can skate. When you think of speed, it's Connor McDavid that comes to mind immediately.

Quickness takes into account a player's agility and ability to go from one place or another while taking advantage of what opposing defenses open up in front of them. Put it this way: think of less straight-line speed. When you watch Toronto's Mitch Marner, you see someone who is decisive and direct to the situation. Quickness by that definition fits Connor Bedard like a glove.

Whether it's getting to a loose puck and making the next play expediently or seeing a seam from the top of the circles to the net and hitting it with a start, quickness leads to opportunities. Quickness can even lead to making the other team commit a mistake(s) that can turn the tide of the game.

Bedard knows what he needs to do when he's playing and does so by arriving there with short notice and a definitive purpose. You know...quickness.