NASHVILLE, Tenn. — This is the Connor Bedard Draft just as 2015 was the Connor McDavid Draft, 2005 was the Sidney Crosby Draft and 1984 was the Mario Lemieux Draft.

This is the elite generational company with whom Wednesday’s first-overall selection joins even before he steps onto an NHL rink. There have been a couple of notable trades over the last 48 hours, the Kings acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois, the Devils acquiring Tyler Toffoli, and there was the forecast of more to come before the proceedings conclude Thursday.

But this has been all Bedard all the time. The NHL is getting this 17-year-old out front as much as possible. It has been a whirlwind within the spotlight and it will not dim. The lad who will begin his career in the City of Broad Shoulders is going to need a pair of his own in order to carry the burden of being expected to spearhead the Blackhawks’ return to prominence.

For now though, this is about soaking it all in and enjoying the moment — the way Alexis Lafreniere was unable to do as the consensus first-overall selection approaching the 2020 draft. There was no between-periods television appearance during the Cup final. There was no appearance on the NHL Awards Show.

And there was no stage for the native of Saint-Eustache to mount upon announcement of his selection by the Rangers.

It was all virtual, remember?

In the midst of COVID restrictions, the draft was a remote operation that took place in early October rather than the customary late June. Lafreniere was projected not as a McDavid, not as a Crosby, but just a level below. Maybe not A+, maybe not Jack Hughes, maybe not Steven Stamkos, but an A player made for Broadway.

Back then, when all seemed possible, when Jeff Gorton, then the general manager, announced Lafreniere as the franchise’s first, first-overall pick since the universal draft had been introduced in 1969, the young man was at his home watching the proceedings with his parents and sister. There was a brief and somewhat awkward celebration.

That was it.

No hoopla. No pats on the back. No receiving the Blueshirt on the podium. No spotlight. It was all virtual.

Lafreniere got robbed.

Now, it was a pandemic. This did not rise to the level of tragedy. It is not an overstatement to suggest millions suffered. We all lost something, even if only time. In context, Lafreniere was inconvenienced.

Still, in the narrow hockey context, Lafreniere got robbed.

That was the beginning of a three-year journey over cobblestones. It’s all been slightly off, hasn’t it, the whole thing, as Lafreniere heads into restricted free agency? His projected stardom has been virtual, too.

He was drafted first-overall, had his quiet celebration in what was an essentially locked-down province of Quebec and waited at home for months for training camp to start in early February. Lafreniere had 10 days and no exhibition games in which to prepare for the NHL. Then, a 56-game season played exclusively within a reconstructed eight-team Eastern division and in front of no, or few, fans.

Nothing came easy and nothing has come easy. Lafreniere’s ice time and usage under two head coaches, first David Quinn and then Gerard Gallant, has been put under the microscope. Less so have deficiencies in his skating that were not forecast by the player personnel people who heralded the winger. Nobody but nobody questioned his commitment and work ethic back then. On the contrary. Now, there are murmurs.

The Rangers addressed an organizational hole by selecting USNTDP right winger Gabriel Perreault with the 23rd overall pick of Wednesday’s first round. He’s got a Broadway ETA of maybe 2025-26 or 2026-27. In the interim, it would sure help if Lafreniere could flip to his off-wing on the right.

The Blueshirts, you may have heard, are facing a cap conundrum. They would like to sign Lafreniere — an impending restricted free agent — to a two-year bridge contract in the vicinity of the $2.1 million per that Kaapo Kakko signed last summer.

Lafreniere does have better numbers coming out of his entry-level deal than the Finn, 47-44-91 in 216 games to 26-32-58 in 157 games, 0.22 goals-per game and 0.42 points per game to 0.17 goals-per and 0.37 points per. So maybe the bridge deal becomes worth $2.35M or $2.4M per.

When you hear Lafreniere’s name mentioned here in Smashville, it is often attached to a potential trade scenario. I don’t follow the reasoning. Lafreniere’s market value is surely depressed. The Rangers, who are hardly overflowing with top-six candidates, would need to replace Lafreniere with someone who could play up while carrying a cap charge of no more than $2.5M. That would be who exactly?

Three years later, Lafreniere and the Rangers are trying to figure it out. It is as if his unsatisfying downsized draft presaged the unsatisfying downsized first three years of his career.

This is the week that Connor Bedard was feted. It is three years after Lafreniere got robbed.