For the second week in a row, there won’t be any surprise at the top of a professional sports draft.
If the NBA Draft was all about Victor Wembanyama, the NHL Draft, which will hold its first round Wednesday night, is all about Connor Bedard.
Wembanyama was the center of attention, the heralded prospect immediately tasked with becoming the face of a franchise. Bedard is, too.
Forget development. Forget a transition. The Spurs’ future started as soon as they emerged from the NBA lottery with the No. 1 pick. The Blackhawks’ future started as soon as the four ping-pong balls bounced 5-13-4-9 on May 8.
The two drafts certainly didn’t have any suspense at the top. If anything, the real intrigue came when predicting who would go second — Brandon Miller in the NBA, perhaps Adam Fantilli in the NHL — or third overall, or which team would make the blockbuster trade to move up and completely redefine its offseason.
There wasn’t a sense of mystery like in the 2018 NFL Draft, when no one knew whether Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen would go No. 1 overall. Or like in the 2022 NBA Draft, when either Paolo Banchero or Jabari Smith would’ve been a plausible first selection.
But maybe that’s OK.
Wembanyama and Bedard possess talent so mesmerizing and enticing that it completely eliminated any other option for the Spurs and Blackhawks.
Viewers still tuned into the NBA Draft at a record-setting rate. They wanted to see Wembanyama’s first images with the jersey. The first answers of his first NBA interview. The Spurs hat on his head. The reactions. The analysis. Was this pick — the pick of the year, or even the decade — enough for the team to instantly become a contender?
There could be growing pains. Both players might struggle for a couple of years. But their certainty at the top of draft boards didn’t lead to any less fanfare surrounding two major events on an otherwise dormant sports calendar this time of year.
If anything, the circumstances surrounding their teams and the picks turned the beginning of their careers into case studies.
There’s no guarantee that Wembanyama will mesh seamlessly from France, or Bedard from the Canadian juniors, to their leagues.
Connor McDavid and Patrick Kane did, but there have also been examples of top picks who didn’t exactly pan out or have taken longer than expected.
The Rangers — who have a limited collection of 2023 picks and will be limited by the salary cap in their deal-making ability this week — even have two on their roster.
Alexis Lafrenière was the No. 1 overall pick in 2020, and he managed just 16 goals and 39 points last season. Another member of the Blueshirts’ Kid Line, Kaapo Kakko, was the No. 2 overall pick in 2019, and he compiled 40 points. But across the Hudson, Jack Hughes, selected one slot ahead of Kakko, has blossomed into a star.
The hype surrounding Wembanyama and Bedard makes it seem as if each will become an All-Stars in his first season and guide his franchise to a title. One NHL executive told The Athletic the hype surrounding Bedard has gotten a “little out of control.”
Sure, Bedard finished his Western Hockey League career with 271 points in 134 games, including 143 in 71 games in 2022-23. Sure, his offensive instincts and flashes have drawn comparisons to McDavid, who won his third Hart Trophy this week, and other superstars. But he’s still 17 and hasn’t clocked his first NHL minute.
Beyond the individual storylines, the clear-cut picks in the draft didn’t arrive without pushback — not due to them, but rather their teams — following the lotteries, either. For the Spurs, it was because they’re … well … the Spurs. They’ve won five NBA titles. They’ve had No. 1 overall picks in the past, with Tim Duncan and David Robinson, and Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich now gets another generational talent to develop.
The Blackhawks getting the No. 1 overall pick caused frustration, too, because of the organization’s role in a sexual assault scandal and, more recently, their blatant tanking efforts.
Former Chicago player Kyle Beach alleged in Oct. 2021 that he was sexually assaulted and harassed by former Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010. General manager Stan Bowman and head coach Joel Quenneville — the latter with the Panthers at that point — both resigned following the release of a report that said the franchise had “inadequate procedures and mishandling” of the incident involving Aldrich. The franchise was fined $2 million.
The Blackhawks didn’t lose any draft picks, though. And one of them turned into their chance to select a player No. 1 overall for the first time since 2007, when they took Kane and embarked on a stretch that featured three Stanley Cups.
Beyond those storylines surrounding the organizations, Wembanyama and Bedard still provided plenty of entertainment.
Wembanyama tossed a wild first pitch at Yankee Stadium and rode the subway to The Bronx, ducking to ensure his head cleared the entrance.
Bedard took a friendly jab at analyst Paul Bissionnette during the Stanley Cup’s TNT show for being inferior to the rest of the crew, and he also joked that, at one point, he thought a call from Wayne Gretzky was a prank.
Wembanyama made a joke about wanting to experience breakfast tacos in San Antonio. Bedard said it would be an honor if the Blackhawks selected him.
The prospects blended sincerity and humor, and they added personalities to their names and talents that already had become commodities
That alone has kept the drafts interesting enough. Even without the suspense for who would hear his name called first.
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The Mets’ June woes have attracted more and more questions about the direction of this season, and owner Steve Cohen said he would provide some answers Wednesday.
The owner who bankrolled the $364 million roster tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he’ll address reporters as the Mets continue a four-game series against the Brewers at Citi Field, writing that “you will get it from me straight.”
It likely won’t involve a drastic change with Buck Showalter, though. Cohen supported the Mets manager in a previous interview with Joel Sherman — saying that he is “not going to blow up” the stability despite the rocky start — and Sherman writes he expects Cohen to try to project a sense of rationality and not change his tune much Wednesday.
Mets general manager Billy Eppler also publicly backed Showalter on Tuesday.
The Mets were on a seven-game losing streak when Cohen spoke to The Post on June 10, and they’ve gone just 6-9 since — even after Tuesday’s thorough 7-2 victory against Milwaukee.
Cohen will likely need to address pitching inconsistencies from Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, bullpen decisions from Showalter, the organization’s approach to the upcoming trade deadline and the philosophy behind not diving into a full-time Baby Mets lineup that regularly features Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio.
At some point during the regular season, every team needs a spark.
It’s inevitable across 162 games. Injuries happen. There are stretches of uninspired play and underperformance.
The Yankees sure looked as if they could use a spark in a 2-1 loss Tuesday night to the lowly A’s. They turned back to journeyman Jhony Brito, who pitched well, but the offense remained largely invisible without Aaron Judge.
The Mets? Earlier in the year, when they needed a spark for their lineup, they called up Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty. They turned into the Baby Mets.
Tuesday, with their campaign teetering on the brink of disaster and searching for an upgrade over the sputtering Tylor Megill in the rotation, the Mets summoned … David Peterson.
And Peterson — the 27-year-old lefty whose struggles already led to a demotion to Triple-A — proceeded to throw six scoreless innings and provide precisely the outing they needed. Go figure.
The Mets don’t have a top pitching prospect ready for promotion — the pipeline lags behind what they’ve produced in position players. The Yankees did have options in the upper minors, but traded them many of those pitchers away in failed deadline trades for Frankie Montas and Scott Effross.
This is an area where the Yankees and Mets have straggled behind the league’s top teams in 2023.
The Dodgers have received lifts from Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan to stay in postseason position amid a plethora of pitching injuries.
The juggernaut Braves have used Bryce Elder, rookie Jared Shuster and 20-year-old AJ Smith-Shawver, who started the season in High-A.
Hunter Brown has earned a full-time spot in the Astros’ rotation after a late-season cameo in 2022.
Those franchises have won the past three World Series.
Even the surprising first-place Reds, in addition to the lifeblood of their young lineup, have Andrew Abbott compiling a 1.21 ERA through his first five starts.
Taj Bradley’s anticipated MLB debut in April has helped lift the Rays to the top of the standings.
The Yankees, despite their struggles, have remained a playoff team and don’t necessarily need that spark from a minor league starter — especially with Carlos Rodon nearing a return and Clarke Schmidt compiling a 2.00 ERA in his last five starts.
But for the Mets, it doesn’t take long for the Worst Half Money Can Buy to become a year. Every positive Peterson outing helps.
The headline-filled year of LSU athletics came full-circle Monday night in Omaha, Neb., where Charles Schwab Field posed as Alex Box Stadium 2.0 — at least according to a local Jell-O shot tracker — and gave the College World Series’ clinching game a home atmosphere.
Dylan Crews cranked the third pitch of the eighth inning — in a Game 3 where the Tigers already led 11-3 — and sent it into the right-center gap for a triple. After he slid into third, Crews, who’s projected as a top-two pick in July’s draft, pretended to put a ring on his finger, channeling LSU women’s basketball star Angel Reese.
“I got caught up in the moment a little bit, but I saw Joe Burrow do it and Reese do it from women’s basketball,” Crews said in a postgame interview on the field. “I just had to do it to get the crowd going, get the team going.”
Over the last year, Brian Kelly turned into a dancing TikTok star who helped the Tigers win the SEC West and topple Purdue in the Citrus Bowl. Reese then became perhaps the school’s most popular athlete since Burrow following LSU’s women’s basketball national championship, when she taunted Iowa star Caitlin Clark in the championship game and pretended to put a ring on her finger before the Tigers even cut the nets down.
Their gymnastics team also features Olivia Dunne, who sits at No. 2 on On3.com’s tracker for athletes making money off name, image and likeness with a valuation of $3.3 million. She was in attendance at the College World Series clincher, while Reese tweeted her reaction, too.
Now, the Tigers won the baseball title with potentially the top two MLB draft picks — Crews and star pitcher Paul Skenes. They might’ve had a stronger college season than any other program.
It’s quite a change from a low point that saw football coach Ed Orgeron and the school part ways only 21 months after the football team won a national title with Burrow. Men’s basketball head coach Will Wade was then involved in a recruiting scandal and fired ahead of the NCAA Tournament in 2022.
But the Tigers have a new trajectory and placement within the college athletics realm. It’d already been a national powerhouse.
Just imagine if Kelly’s next TikTok includes the College Football Playoff trophy.