Carter Bear is about to find out just how wide the gap gets between junior hockey and the pro game.
After four seasons with the WHL Everett Silvertips, the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025 first-round pick is headed to the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins. That puts the 19-year-old left wing one step from the NHL, and Bear knows the next climb won’t be a small one.
“I think obviously, it’s pro now,” Bear said. “That’s a whole new level of hockey. Way different than junior.
“It’s faster, so you gotta be smarter and stronger. I just need to work on the game that Detroit wants me to work on. Focus on that.”
Bear’s path last season was anything but smooth at the start. He was still working back from an Achilles injury he suffered late in his draft year, and the slow opening stretch raised questions. Bear, though, brushed off any suggestion that the injury was to blame.
“No, I don’t really like to put any excuse on it,” Bear said. “I started playing, and it just went away from my mind and started to feel normal. Yeah, it’s all healthy now, for sure.”
Once he got rolling, he really got rolling. Bear finished with 36 goals, 77 points and a +45 rating in 53 games for Everett. In the playoffs, he added seven goals, 22 points and a +22 rating in 18 games as the Silvertips won the WHL title before falling to the Kitchener Rangers in the Memorial Cup final.
“As a kid, you watch the Memorial Cup each year, and playing it was pretty special to do with the group of guys I had in Everett,” Bear said. “For sure was unbelievable.
So, yeah, it was pretty cool. But it sucks how we came up short.”
There’s a simple reason Bear is on Detroit’s short list of prospects most likely to reach the NHL: he scores. The puck seems to find him in dangerous places, and he has the kind of deceptive shot that can make him look invisible until he suddenly pops up where it matters most.
The other thing that stands out is his edge. Bear may not wear his intensity on his sleeve, but he plays with real bite.
He’ll go after loose pucks, compete in traffic, and keep coming. Underestimate him, and you’ll probably pay for it.
The concerns are the usual ones for a young player entering the pro ranks, but they matter here. Bear will need to add strength, especially because he’s expected to battle along the wall and play a power-forward style. At six-foot and 183 pounds, he doesn’t arrive with a major physical advantage.
“He’s not the biggest guy, but he’s not small by any means,” Red Wings player development director Dan Cleary said.
Skating is another area Detroit will be watching closely.
“What does he need to work on?” Cleary asked rhetorically.
“A lot of things. He’s got to get stronger a little quicker, but he’s certainly got a good mind for it, a good mentality, and he’s ready for the challenge.”
The optimistic read is that Bear could be in Detroit within two years. Still, because he brings a scorer’s profile, the Red Wings may give him more runway to settle in and prove he can become an elite AHL goal scorer first.
“I trust Detroit,” Bear said. “Whatever their best development is for me, I’m just trusting in that. And I think it’ll all work out.”
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