Inevitability became reality a little after 7 p.m. on Wednesday when the Blackhawks selected Connor Bedard with the first pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

That choice made the 17-year-old native of North Vancouver, British Columbia, the face of one of the league’s marquee franchises and accelerated Chicago’s rebuilding process.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Bedard said to ESPN. “Growing up in an era where [the Blackhawks] were so dominant, so good with all the players they had, it’s incredible seeing [their jersey] on myself. Couldn’t be happier getting started.”

There was zero question that Bedard would be the first pick — not for well over a year.

Noise about Bedard’s prowess first emerged when he was all of 10 years old and it grew exponentially as he stormed through West Vancouver Academy, was granted exceptional status at 14, then turned Regina, Saskatchewan, into a destination while starring in the Western Hockey League over the past three seasons.

At every stage, Bedard has easily surpassed expectations, leading to his being placed in the same class of draft hype as Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby.

Bedard’s presumed NHL debut, on Oct. 10 in Pittsburgh against Crosby and the Penguins, was slated for national television before the Blackhawks made the pick official.

So great is the presumption of success that no one stopped to consider whether Bedard would make the opening night roster — normally a question for any draft pick — before choosing to schedule a team that went 26-49-7 last season for a prime-time game.

The only person unwilling to treat it as a fact that he will be on the ice that night might be Bedard himself.

“I gotta make it first,” Bedard said to ESPN. “That would be unreal. [Crosby was] my favorite player growing up and a big idol of mine.”

Just how good is this kid? Take it from Mathew Barzal, another Vancouver native who connected with Bedard before the new Blackhawk’s ascendency.

“He would’ve been 12, I think, and was wearing a cage and skates that looked a little too big,” Barzal said in January. “Then we came back the next summer and he was beating NHL goalies with his shot. It was like, ‘This kid’s the real deal.’ ”

Bedard cannot single-handedly carry the Blackhawks to title contention, but what looked as though it would be a yearslong process got significantly easier when the lottery balls came up Chicago’s way.

The Blackhawks are set to enter free agency with more than $27 million in salary-cap space, greater than all but three other teams.

General manager Kyle Davidson already used that to his advantage on Monday, when he acquired Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno from the Bruins, who could no longer afford either player.

In addition to the top pick, Chicago also used the 19th-overall pick to select center Oliver Moore, out of the U.S. National Team Development Program, and will have nine selections on Thursday, giving Davidson a chance to further add to a system that already includes three top-25 selections from last season.

Oh, and the Blackhawks have six picks in the first three rounds of the 2024 draft.

In other words: Chicago has pulled off a dream tank job, transitioning from the era of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane to a Bedard-led team with relative ease.

Getting back to the playoffs will be another matter, and one that the Blackhawks won’t be expected to accomplish as soon as this season.

The players to whom Bedard is typically compared did not waste much time before starting to fulfill their promise.

McDavid was named Edmonton’s captain, won his first Hart Trophy, led the league in points and led the Oilers to the playoffs in just his second season in the league.

Crosby crossed the 100-point threshold as a rookie, helped the Penguins to a postseason berth as a sophomore, then was named captain and reached the Stanley Cup Final in his third season.

It took the Blackhawks just two seasons with Kane and Toews to get to the conference finals, and a third to win the Cup.

“I have no clue,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson told ESPN, asked about a timeline for getting back to the postseason.

But Davidson is now on the clock.