One month into the season, the points leaderboard offered a snapshot of hockey's near future. Atop the chart sit Macklin Celebrini, 20, with 23 points, and Connor Bedard, 19, with 22. According to ESPN Research, this is the first time in NHL history that two players 20 or younger have occupied first and second through this stage of a season (or later, across 230 games). That stat alone makes this moment feel significant.
Seeing these two young stars ahead of familiar elite names such as Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Nathan MacKinnon and Leon Draisaitl has a poetic resonance. It also brings back a Crosby–Ovechkin parallel: both were sequential No. 1 overall picks in the mid-2000s, and Bedard and Celebrini were consecutive first-overall selections in 2023 and 2024. Bedard arrived with Crosby-level hype and took home the Calder Trophy as a rookie; Celebrini arrived with similar expectations and now the conversation has shifted from who will be better someday to watching two likely superstars perform now.
Will they hold the top two spots all season? Probably not — established stars will reassert themselves over 82 games — but for the moment Bedard versus Cele
