MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Carter Bear can\u2019t forget the play.<\/p>\n
It was midway through the second period on March 9, 2025, and his Everett Silvertips were down 2-1 on the road to the Portland Winterhawks. After a scrum in the right circle in the offensive zone, the puck squirted to the left-wing corner. Bear chased it like he always does and finished a check on his right shoulder along the boards on Portland defenseman Max Psenicka. As he did, he felt Psenicka fall backwards, and Psenicka\u2019s leg kicked up in their brief clinch, catching the back of Bear\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n
When he instinctively got back up onto his feet, his right one gave out. He didn\u2019t know it at the time, but 56 games into his draft year with his WHL-contending Silvertips, his season \u2014 and the big plans that he had for the offseason that would follow it \u2014 was over. He\u2019d lacerated his Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the doctor to say I\u2019m not going to be playing for the rest of the season, it was pretty hard to hear,\u201d Bear said, looking back on the moment. \u201cIt was definitely tough. It was not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, he was playing at a 49-goal, 100-point 68-game pace. Despite the injury, the Detroit Red Wings \u2014 who he said he had \u201cno clue\u201d were going to select him \u2014 took him with the 13th pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. And 295 days after the accident, he stepped out onto the ice at 3M Arena as a member of Team Canada at the World Juniors.<\/p>\n
The journey from that night in Portland to this one in Minneapolis was paved by his work ethic \u2014 a work ethic which defines his game on the ice and has defined his story off it.<\/p>\n
A little less than four months before the injury, the Silvertips were in Seattle, and their new head coach, Steve Hamilton, was beginning to realize what he had in No. 11.<\/p>\n
The Silvertips won the game 5-2, and Bear had a hat trick.<\/p>\n
A couple of them were \u201creally\u00a0impressive,\u201d according to Hamilton, and as time went on, his appreciation for Bear as a player for his team only grew, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the year, I just caught myself appreciating some of the things that he did that maybe don\u2019t stand out, but when you see it over and over again, you realize there\u2019s a pattern here,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cHe scores goals where he just finds a way, and he sticks around. But that Seattle game was my first introduction to what became a 40-goal season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bear had two things that drove him: he was \u201cincredibly smart,\u201d and he had a \u201clevel of determination that you don\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a second, third and fourth effort guy. He just kind of never quits on anything and turns the most casual of plays into something simply because he tracks, outworks, strips pucks and finds a way,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201c(That) doesn\u2019t always get appreciated from a distance, but when you see it firsthand over and over, you really do value that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That made the injury to his alternate captain a \u201cdevastating\u201d one, not just for Bear but also for Hamilton\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had a huge impact on our team. And it had a huge impact on Carter,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cIt was an unorthodox summer for him going through the draft and then going through the rehab process after that to get prepared to play. It was not a typical summer for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of doing the rehab at home in Winnipeg with his longtime strength and conditioning coach Richard Burr, the Red Wings signed him to an entry-level contract, and he did his rehabbing in Detroit all summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty grateful Detroit did all that for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a pretty long process. But I just stuck with it and kept my head up. To get to where I am now, I\u2019m pretty proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the injury, he wasn\u2019t able to participate in the World Junior Summer Showcase, either. He eventually returned to play with Everett on Oct. 10.<\/p>\n
Early on, Hamilton said there was some rust, and Bear got off to a slow start, registering just five points in his first eight games of the season.<\/p>\n
Asked if the injury and lack of skating and proper training impacted it, he refused to go there, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really like to use excuses,\u201d he said. \u201cI was limited strength when I came back, but nobody wants to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as time went on, his game started to polish again and, according to Hamilton, \u201che was playing really, really good hockey\u201d when Team Canada called.<\/p>\n
Bear fielded the call around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, from Canada\u2019s general manager Alan Millar. It was an off day, and he was sitting in his room doing nothing.<\/p>\n
Millar told The Athletic that if they selected the team in October, Bear wouldn\u2019t have been on it because of the injury and the slow start.<\/p>\n
But in the final eight games before they announced the team, Bear registered nine goals and 15 points. And Hockey Canada was paying attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an example where you can\u2019t rush to decisions based on the start of the year,\u201d Millar said. \u201cYou have to take everything into context. The injury, what did his summer look like? Carter, for me, is an honest player, brings us versatility, can play up and down the lineup. I think he\u2019s a guy that can help you win. We kept that in mind as we were making our final decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bear says the invite, and eventually surviving a round of cuts, meant more to him because of what he\u2019d been through to earn it. So did Monday night\u2019s debut, after he was the team\u2019s scratch at forward for their first two games.<\/p>\n
Before the tournament started, he said he\u2019d get to work for Team Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI envision myself playing the same game that I always do for Everett. Just a hard-nosed player that gets into the dirty areas \u2014 not scared to do anything at all. I play simple and get into the hard areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On Monday against Denmark in his debut, he played just 6:32 but impressed, registering four shots on goal (third-most on the team) in nine shifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he played really well tonight,\u201d head coach Dale Hunter said postgame. \u201cI thought he skated well, stuck to the systems, used his speed, got in on the puck a lot, was in front of the net and defensively he was good. And as a coach, we like the defensive side, too. He was all-around really good. You\u2019ve got to be ready when you go in so that you can stay in. And he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bear says work ethic comes from the place and the people he comes from.<\/p>\n
His parents were born on the Peguis First Nation reserve two hours north of Winnipeg. The Peguis First Nation is the largest in Manitoba, with a population of more than 11,000, and his \u201cwhole family background on both sides is Indigenous.\u201d Most of his family still lives there, and he visits often in the summer. His dad, mom, grandfather and other family members run a family business called the Indigenous Management Group, which helps Indigenous people in the province manage their finances. On Monday, when he made his World Junior debut with Team Canada, many of them were in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of my background and what my ancestors did,\u201d Bear said in a long conversation with The Athletic pre-tournament. \u201cIt\u2019s very special to represent them and my background. And it\u2019s cool to see all of the young indigenous players coming up. That\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also grew up as the middle child with two sisters, playing the same style on the lacrosse field as he did on the ice, and had to earn everything after he was drafted 132nd in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he first arrived in Everett, expectations for him as a sixth-round WHL draft pick, you\u2019re never quite sure where his development could take him, and I just think every year he has gotten better and better and we\u2019ve certainly benefitted from that,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
Hamilton describes him as a quiet but incredibly competitive player who is well-respected and loved by his teammates.<\/p>\n
Now that he\u2019s healthy again, the two things he, Hamilton and the Red Wings want to work on next are his skating, which Hamilton said has never held him back but is an area for improvement, and filling out his 6-foot, 179-pound frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have the frame that you have, and then it\u2019s just about being as powerful and explosive as you can be within that,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cAnd I think Carter\u2019s got lots of room to grow within his and as he gets stronger, I think that\u2019ll help all aspects of his game because he certainly isn\u2019t a play-on-the-outside type of guy, so he\u2019s going to need that strength to get to the inside and do the work that he\u2019s used to doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have no doubt that he\u2019ll put the necessary work in on both of those fronts, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just really does his talking on the ice,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cHe\u2019s not about frivolity and all the extras. He\u2019s getting down to business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 With reporting in Niagara Falls, Ontario<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Carter Bear can\u2019t forget the play. It was midway through the second period on March 9,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1786,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-378099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-detroit-red-wings","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}