Player Discussion Evan Bouchard
- Thread starter Trafalgar Sadge Law
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Stoneman89
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- Feb 8, 2008
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I don't think he's played well enough at this point to be an all star. Has lots of points, but his play is still too inconsistent in his end, and you can really see where Ekholm covers up for him a lot, and the team defensive structure and solid goaltending are also helping to mask some issues. He's getting there, and will never be a defensive stalwart, but he still needs to clean up his defensive play before I'd consider him. Still appreciate him though.
Fourier
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Trafalgar Sadge Law
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Wdym? It's an awful contract due to the term. We should've been trying to lock him up to a Dobson esque contract. But instead we bridged him so we could keep dog shit players like Brett Kulak and paycheck stealers like Jack Campbell a 2nd chance.
No hindsight involved whatsoever. Many people here were pushing for a long-term deal and criticizing the Campbell contract the second it was signed.
Many people think gambling is a solid financial tool also.
Mr Positive
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It doesn't matter what Bouchard wanted. When it was time to sign him we only had space to bridge him. But we could have squeezed him either way. We squeezed him for a bridge and we could have squeezed him for term instead if we wanted.
TopShelfGloveSide
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Please explain how the Oilers would squeeze Bouchard into a long term contract if he wanted a bridge?
Mr Positive
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The same way we squeezed him for a 2nd year on the bridge deal. He isn't a superstar. He doesn't have leverage. You go at him with with an 8 year deal, and if it's a tough negotiation you settle on 6 years or 5. I'm sure a similar discussion with Drai went like that.
It's right that we do not know, but just look at the situation. It's not like there was space to do anything but bridge him. The plan was always to force Bouchard into a bridge deal, and the squeeze was to get that 2nd year.
Trafalgar Sadge Law
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Jet Walters
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They did lock him up to a Dobson esque contract. The two players contracts are virtually identical.
TheNumber4
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Oilers are often criticized for their development. Heck I did just that with Bouchard at the beginning of the year when his egregious defensive mistakes looked like they were going to never end. But now with his emergence and looking back at how he was brought up I think we can say the Oilers did a good job here.
We brought in Barrie so that Bouchard wouldn’t be the number 1 offensive guy from a young age. That allowed him to work on his battle level, defensive positioning, instead of just focusing on being the Bouch Bomb guy. If we had done that this development story could have turned out much worse.
We also have paired him with appropriate vets in Kieth and now Ekholm. And gave him cover with decent pairs above him. Schultz never got this benefit.
We brought in Barrie so that Bouchard wouldn’t be the number 1 offensive guy from a young age. That allowed him to work on his battle level, defensive positioning, instead of just focusing on being the Bouch Bomb guy. If we had done that this development story could have turned out much worse.
We also have paired him with appropriate vets in Kieth and now Ekholm. And gave him cover with decent pairs above him. Schultz never got this benefit.
Trafalgar Sadge Law
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The extra year makes a big difference lol. You either go 8x8 and get him long term or you try to bridge him to the year right before free agency at the same time contracts like Kane and Ekholm expire. We did the worst of both worlds with a short term bridge that puts him on pace to get a new contract when we don't have enough expirings to be flexible cap wise.
Jet Walters
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I’m pretty sure an extra year would have made him a UFA at expiration. That would be an even worse situation to be in. Either way, both Dobson and Bouchard each have a year left at 3.9 and 4 per respectively, and then will be RFA’s.
McDNicks17
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McShogun99
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I’m guessing if we tried to sign Bouchard to an 8 year deal this past off season then it was probably going to cost around 7 million. When the current deal is up I’m guessing it will cost 8-8.5 for an 8 year deal if he stays close to a PPG.
He gets points but overall he’s not better then Nurse or Ekholm.
He gets points but overall he’s not better then Nurse or Ekholm.
Mr Positive
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There's huge cap growth. Dobson will be the comparable I guess. Imo he may challenge Nurse in AAV even if he isnt as good overall. It seems crazy now but salary inflation always does this to us fans. People were talking about Bouchard getting 60 points if he were lucky but he will probably end up with closer to 90. He's getting better defensively as well
The Cap is finally expected to start in creasing next season, and that's more of a possibility then the rumored increases the last two seasons were supposed to have but in reality only seen a 1 million increase each respectively.
Bouchard's bridge deal has one benefit the offseason it expires the Oilers roster will only have eight players signed, which are all core players except Kulak (Kane debatable). Yes the Draisaitl question will need to be addressed, but with probably an extra 6 million ish in cap ceiling and the savings of Campbell's buyout, though eating up much of the savings in Neal's buyout coming off the books its still a good savings over the 5 million (3.85 million cap hit while buried) AHL backup.
Bouchard's bridge deal has one benefit the offseason it expires the Oilers roster will only have eight players signed, which are all core players except Kulak (Kane debatable). Yes the Draisaitl question will need to be addressed, but with probably an extra 6 million ish in cap ceiling and the savings of Campbell's buyout, though eating up much of the savings in Neal's buyout coming off the books its still a good savings over the 5 million (3.85 million cap hit while buried) AHL backup.
alphahelix
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Trafalgar Sadge Law
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He was coming off a 3 year ELC and a 3 year deal would've taken him to 6th year RFA. Even if it took him to UFA it's completely unacceptable that he wasn't given a long-term deal so we could retain Brett Kulak and make Jack Campbell "feel welcome".
MoneyGuy
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Drivesaitl
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LTIR
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Had we signed Bouchard to a longer deal we would have no money left to sign Connor Brown..
Think about that folks! Think about the PK...
Think about that folks! Think about the PK...
KarmaPolice
Snack enthusiast
Not sure how much stock anyone puts in JFresh's stuff. But that's quite a report card for Evan Bouchard. Compared to other Dmen playing top pairing minutes, Bouchard has pretty impressive numbers.
