Evan Bouchard (RD) has been a big riser of late on London, and he’s gobbling up the points (and hasn’t stopped), taking a ton of shots, has solid size, and is their everything on their blue line. Bouchard is going to be someone I’m off from consensus on. I simply don’t see him being a top 10 caliber pick. Not that I don’t think he has positive attributes or isn’t a fine player, but he’s missing something for me.
He’s nowhere near as dynamic as that scoring indicates, skating or puck skills. I know even his fans knock his skating. I think it’s very average overall (and for a d-man, that doesn't thrill me). Sometimes it looks alright, other times you see more how it could hurt him in tighter checking games at the next level. In full stride he can get up ice OK (the empty NZ in juniors helps), and his top gear is fairly above average. It’s more his lack of quickness and short stride. He can skate/stand too upright and wait around flat footed too much, even up at the point, which doesn’t help his quickness either.
He takes a lot of shots, but as any Flyers fan knows, that can sometimes be irritating depending on quality. Now, he does have a good shot when he gets in closer, and his slapper is hard, but he takes too many poor long distance shots without attempting another read to create a better chance. They’re not good shots, and he’d be better off working the cycle to create chances. Stands flat-footed, catches, and shoots the vast majority of the time rather than pass, though it’s not like he can’t make plays. Even with space, he generally prefers to just do a slow windup slapper. Classic London usage gets a big mention; he plays half the game minimum and often full PPs.
Off the puck in his own zone, he’s competent and can handle himself along the boards; generally in fine position. Certainly is reliable enough there. He is one of the older players in the draft and not far from physical maturity. But his defense can shade towards conservative/safe, and he’s way too quick to retreat back behind his blue line off the rush. He’s almost always well behind it as soon as the opposition skates through the NZ, and he’s not really a pincher either, as he hangs pretty high up at the blue line and then backs up. He’s a good puck mover though in transition and is very patient and has the vision and poise to make a nice first pass. That stands out. He’ll join the rush as a trailer a lot, lead it his fair share too. Certainly has the green light to do whatever.
But I can’t shake the impression there’s an air of reliable vanilla-ness to his game. I think he reads the play “fine” (that’s a word I’d use a lot to describe him), but I also don't feel that he’s high end in the hockey IQ department. I don’t know what he projectably excels at is my general issue. I see he’s being put alongside Dobson, who is definitely a safe prospect and rather shoot first too, except I think Dobson is better at most everything — skating, smarts, size — while being far more aggressive in all 3 zones.