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As Connor Bedard was gearing up for his rookie season with the Chicago Blackhawks, Tanner Howe knew he had big skates to fill as the next captain of the WHL’s Regina Pats.
Replacing a generational superstar on the heels of a prolific season would be no easy job. But when the “C” was passed on to Howe, Bedard had no doubt his former linemate was the right fit, just like he has no doubt that Howe will make an NHL club proud after he gets picked at the 2024 NHL Draft this week.
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And Howe’s competitiveness is at the top of the list of reasons why.
Ask Bedard about it and he’ll tell you how he really feels.
“On the ice, he’s a bit of a prick,” Bedard told The Athletic of Howe, laughing.
Ask Howe about it and he’ll laugh right back — but he’ll also agree.
“Yeah,” he said. “Once I get on the ice, I mean all business. … I try to get under guys’ skin.”
Hearing the two players talk about each other, it’s obvious they’re close friends. And in watching the Pats play over the previous two seasons, their chemistry was obvious, too.
But what would Howe look like without Bedard? It was the obvious question heading into a pivotal 2023-24 season.
With his season at the helm of the Pats offense in the books, and with the NHL Draft in Vegas fast approaching, those who watched him closest over the past year spoke to The Athletic about how Howe benefited from playing with the now-NHL star for two seasons — and why he’s a special player on his own.
Howe grew up in Prince Albert, Sask., about three and a half hours north of Regina. His family had season tickets to the Prince Albert Raiders his whole life, and he remembers looking up to future NHLers Josh Morrissey and Leon Draisaitl.
“I think just growing up watching them had a big influence on me and I always wanted to play in the WHL ever since,” Howe said. “I don’t think I missed a game.”
His earliest hockey influence, though, was his father, Jason, who coached him all the way up to peewee and built rinks in the backyard so he and Howe could work on his game every night — something Jason continues to do with Howe’s younger brother, Connor, who was recently drafted by the hometown Raiders.
Howe was drafted by the Pats in the fourth round (No. 73) of the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft following an impressive 75-point season playing AA for the Prince Albert Pirates. Pats head coach Brad Herauf, an assistant coach at the time, still vividly remembers Howe’s WHL debut.
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“I’ll never forget before the game, I met with him and I was asking him, ‘Who’s your favorite player? Who do you emulate your game after?’ And he goes, ‘Brad Marchand,’” Herauf said. “He was like, ‘I just like to be competitive, like every game, just to make sure that I’m in the game and the other team knows I’m in the game.’”
A then-15-year-old Howe had been called up during the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 season in the bubble, where Regina served as the WHL East Division hub. On his first shift, he skated across the ice and memorably laid a check on a Prince Albert skater about five seconds after the play had gone.
“His very first shift with the Regina Pats really kind of summed up what he’s going to be for us all the time,” Herauf said. “He’s just a kid and I know it’s only a bodycheck, but he’s just the kid that’s going to do whatever it takes to win.”
Howe appeared in eight games that year, scoring a goal and adding an assist. He then had an explosive first full season in 2021-22, totaling 27 goals and 69 points in 64 games, second in team scoring to Bedard’s 100 points. He followed that up with a career-high 36 goals and 85 points in 67 games in 2022-23, behind Bedard’s CHL-leading 143 points and Alexander Suzdalev’s 86.
Howe and Bedard spent most of those two seasons together on the Pats’ top line, with Bedard down the middle and Howe on the wing. After missing the playoffs in their first season together, they led the Pats to a sixth-place finish in the Eastern Conference before falling to the Saskatoon Blades in seven games in the first round of the playoffs.
The two had unequivocal chemistry; Howe, who describes himself as “solid on the forecheck,” would be the first player in, trying to locate the puck and find Bedard in the slot so he could put the puck in the net. Having spent so much time playing together, the two eventually always knew where the other was going to be on the ice.
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“They were joined at the hip since day one. … They’re both little hockey nerds, where it’s just 24/7 hockey with them,” Herauf said. “Obviously Connor is the way he is and he’s that dedicated for a reason, but I think he found a really good running mate in Tanner, and pretty much whatever Connor was doing, Tanner was trying to emulate it or copy it, and I think that’s part of his success.”
Bedard recalls how much fun those two seasons were, developing that familiarity with each other and forging a friendship in between a packed hockey schedule and during a formative point in his own career.
“Him and I were super close,” he said. “We had good chemistry and he’s a fun guy to play with. He thinks the game at a high level.”
The duo was equally close off the ice — literally and figuratively. Howe and Bedard lived just a couple minutes away from each other and would hang out “a decent amount,” according to Howe. The two would drive to the rink together in Bedard’s Ford Bronco, shoot pucks together on their off days and often head to Earls for dinner afterward.
“He wasn’t the best driver at the time,” Howe laughed. “One time it was me, Alexander Suzdalev and him. And we were going to shoot one off day and the shooting place was probably 15 minutes away, and we went to go pull up in the parking lot and there was a ramp that semis drive down, and he drove on to it. So we landed in there and got stuck and he made me and Alex go push him out.”
Playing alongside Bedard — who was named the youngest captain in Pats history heading into 2022-23 — amid his showstopping campaign at the center of the hockey universe isn’t something Howe took for granted. He looked up to Bedard — what he did at the rink and in practice, his dedication to the game, and how he carried himself heading into the NHL Draft as the surefire No. 1 pick. If you ask Howe, all of it rubbed off on him and helped him grow as a player and as a leader.
Between his on-ice product, that dedication off the ice, and his ability to keep things fun in the room, Captain Bedard led by example. So when the captaincy was awarded to Howe the following season, his goal was to do the same.
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“In a big way, what I do is leading by example. I think practicing and giving it 110 (percent) every day. And I mean, in the gym, first guy to the rink and last leave, just little things like that. I think being a young captain in the league, you kind of have to do that. You got to be doing the right thing when no one’s watching.”
And doing the right thing behind closed doors is part of what has impressed Herauf most about Howe. The way he shows up to the rink with a mature, hardworking attitude. The professionalism he showed during what was a tough 2023-24 season. The way he interacts with his teammates.
“He’s a captain for a reason, and he does so many little things just away from the game of hockey to ensure that he’s a better hockey player every time he gets to the rink,” Herauf said. “That just goes really unnoticed. And I think those are the things I really appreciate about Tanner.”
Howe considers himself a serious guy on the ice, but in the dressing room, he likes to keep things loose just like his former captain, whom Howe said was a “funny person in the room, always making jokes and messing around.” He isn’t the loudest player in the room, but also like Bedard before him, he prefers to lead through his actions.
And what sets him apart from others is that competitiveness.
“He’s intense and he wants to win. He’ll kind of do anything to win and help the team. And off the ice is fully committed,” Bedard said.
Pats general manager Alan Millar also points to Howe’s versatility as one of his standout attributes: How he can play up and down the lineup, kill penalties, play a matchup game.
“If we’re up by a goal late in the game, he’s on the ice. If we’re down by a goal late in the game, he’s on the ice,” said the first-year GM. “I think when you project what he can be at the NHL level, I think that versatility is going to be valuable for him.”
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Howe plays with some physicality and says he takes pride in the defensive zone as much as the offensive zone. At 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, he knows he isn’t the biggest skater, but he’s used that as motivation. He used to compare himself to Patrice Bergeron, pointing to his 200-foot game and his being trusted in all situations, but now he thinks of himself as more of a Matthew Tkachuk, whose compete level and peskiness stand out. Like Tkachuk, and Marchand, Howe has an edge to his game — he can play mean.
“He does play pissed off at times,” Millar said. “He wants to win. He’s very invested in his own development in terms of getting better. And I think him and Connor were hand in hand in that regard when they grew up here together … and I think those are great intangibles to be a successful player.”
When Bedard was drafted No. 1 by the Blackhawks, there were questions about how much Howe could succeed without his superstar linemate.
With a big season ahead, Howe stayed in Regina last summer, training at Next Level Hockey Consulting with skills coach Tristan Frei, skating with coach Brent Bobyck and working out at Adrenaline with Deanna Wells.
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For Howe, proving he was a strong enough player without Bedard meant leaning into his team’s identity, which he describes as playing hard on the forecheck, moving pucks up forward.
“(Bedard) could almost go win a game by himself,” Howe said of his former teammate. “Any guy that plays with him is gonna do good, he’s such a good player. He makes everyone around him better. So I think it was a big year for myself and a big summer to prove people wrong that think that. I think I did a decent job at it.”
The Pats missed the playoffs, finishing last in the Eastern Conference with a disappointing 22-40-4-2 record. Howe finished the season with a team-leading 28 goals, 49 assists and 77 points — 25 points more than the Pats’ next leading scorer — in 68 games, a testament to his ability to create offense without superstar talent supporting him.
Still, he admits it wasn’t his best year.
“Everyone’s still playing for something,” he said. “The guys are playing for spots and things like that. So, I think that pushed a lot of us. But not the greatest year.”
But his ability to lead the organization during a difficult season with a lot of transition impressed his coach and GM. The Pats traded away scorers Borya Valis, Parker Berge and Suzdalev at the deadline, and Howe continued to take the reins as the team’s offensive catalyst.
“He leads by example. He leads by being the first guy in the gym, the last guy out of the gym, how he practices, what his habits are to get prepared. And then just how he plays the game,” Millar said.
You can see Bedard’s influence in Howe’s leadership style, but Millar says Howe took a clear step on his own.
“I think Tanner unequivocally showed that while there was great chemistry between the two, they obviously had success playing together, Tanner showed that he is his own guy,” Millar continued. “People may look at the fact, well he had this number of points playing with Bedard a year ago, but you have to take everything into consideration when you look at that. The team a year ago had Bedard. It had Suzdalev. Also, this team was younger. This team was in transition. … I think he took another step in terms of the prospect that he is, with and without playing with Bedard.”
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Bedard and Howe continued to stay in touch this past year. Howe tuned in to most of Bedard’s Calder Trophy-worthy season, often watching Blackhawks games on the team bus. At the beginning of the season, Bedard would text his former teammates if they had a good game. He also reached out to Howe to congratulate him after he was invited to the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in January.
“We talk quite often,” Howe said. “A good chunk of it is hockey. We’ll talk about other things to keep our minds off hockey once in a while, but I’d say the majority is hockey for sure.
“It’s pretty neat he hasn’t forgotten about the Regina Pats.”
NHL Central Scouting’s final draft rankings has Howe 41st among North American skaters. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranked Howe No. 66 in his top 129 prospects, highlighting his compete level as his “calling card.” The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler has him at No. 42 in his final top 100 prospects, also pointing to his competitiveness and leadership as his standout traits.
Bedard told Howe the most important thing about the draft experience is to soak it all in and have fun.
“I’m excited for him,” said Bedard. “Obviously he’s really, really talented offensively. … A team is going to be lucky to snag him.”
And regardless of where or when he gets drafted — with his mom, dad, sister, brother, girlfriend and billets beside him at the Sphere in Vegas — Herauf says Howe is a player who shouldn’t be counted out; a player with a competitive spirit that an NHL team will love — and that the opposing teams will hate.
“Like Connor said, I won’t say he’s a prick to play against, but he’s just an ultra-competitive kid,” Herauf said. “That’s just Tanner, man.”
(Top photo: Dale Preston / Getty Images)
