from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

“I think we can all agree on Bedard’s ability/talent — but that he wants to make a difference almost every shift is exceptional.

“Exceptional players win championships.”

The injury-riddled Jackets, last in the Eastern Conference standings, will have a shot at him in the draft lottery, along with the Blackhawks, Ducks, Sharks, Coyotes, Canadiens and Flyers, among others.

I say among “others” because there’s lots of hockey left and time for teams to stumble down the standings and enter the Bedard-lottery fray. What about the Blues after the injury news Monday regarding Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko?

What will be interesting to follow in the next few weeks is how quickly some of those teams start to trade away players ahead of the March 3 deadline.

As they do, of course part of the aim will be recouping futures-type assets. But the other benefit, especially with the trades that happen sooner rather than later, will be to further weaken those teams’ current NHL rosters and help fortify the draft lottery chances.

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