Prospect Info: 2018 Draft: 1st pick: Evan Bouchard (D) - Sent back to London (11/02/18)

[Bryanbryoil]

With Puljujaarvi's breakaway speed this season and Reider's and McDavid's it'd be kind of dumb not to have an elite puck moving breakout artist in Bouchard in the line up.

If he can keep his mistakes to a minimum then I agree.

 

[Little Fury]

If he can keep his mistakes to a minimum then I agree.

AFAIC, he can make 5 flubs leading to GA a night if he's making 6 plays for a GF.

 

[Aceboogie]

AFAIC, he can make 5 flubs leading to GA a night if he's making 6 plays for a GF.

Absolutely. With Bouchard, people will need to accept the flubs and errors defensively in order to appreciate the offensive skills. Too many fans, in my opinion, want to tone down defenseman so much so that they are ok or passable in the defensive end. But taking the risk or dynamic play out of their game in order to do this totally limits and crushes the offensive ability. He should be allowed and even advised to play riskier and let his offensive game totally develop. His defensive game can be worked on over the years

You dont draft a high, high, high offensive upside D like Bouchard to be good defensively in years 1-3 of his career. Needless to say, itll be frustrating to watch Bouchard and read HF for his first few seasons because I know Ill be seeing alot of "yeah he can do good things offensively, but did you see that one mistake on D last game, ugh?!? send him down." After seeing fans completely turn on Benning and Klefbom for similar reasons, I dont have much faith Bouchard will get any different treatment

 

[McFlyingV]

With Puljujaarvi's breakaway speed this season and Reider's and McDavid's it'd be kind of dumb not to have an elite puck moving breakout artist in Bouchard in the line up.

Agreed. His defensive game isn't good, but its also not horrendous. He makes mistakes that young D make, but he's absolutely a net positive in my opinion on the bottom pair + PP with his breakout pass, slick pin point puck moving, and ability to get hard low shots on net. The benefit of playing Russell with him is you lower Russell's 5 on 5 minutes which helps his game, and you can trust him to bail out and retrieve pucks for Bouchard. He's the retriever and Bouchard's the distributer.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

AFAIC, he can make 5 flubs leading to GA a night if he's making 6 plays for a GF.

I liked his game outside of that puck he coughed up into the slot. He was night and day better than his previous game, IMO we have a definite keeper here and Yawney's acquisition couldn't have come at a better time.

 

[Jesus Take the Wheel]

Another factor to keep in mind is that like in past years one the season starts, if they oilers try to match up our 1st forward line and 3rd D pairing being on the ice at the same time, it has the potential to be a lot more of a threat then last year with Bouchard on that line. The Oilers will have a D man than cant make above average outlet passes leaving the zone and another scoring threat for McDavid to utilize in the O zone, two things we never really saw too much when we say the likes of Gryba and Auvitu getting thrown out with McDavid

 

[thadd]

Was I wearing homer or drunk glasses or did Bouchard seem to be more useful than Russell (Even if we forget about the failed block shot attempt that ended up screening Talbot and leading to a goal) and Benning vs the Devils?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not convinced enough yet that we should burn a year of his ELC, but he was far more effective than I could have expected out of a recently drafted d-man.

He really surprised me when I saw him contain a winger in the corner on two occasions in a manner that led to us gaining possession of the puck.

The speed of his decision-making was quite pleasant, as well. I'm paranoid that it'll lead to turnovers, but he hasn't been burned yet.

 

[Gordian Knot]

Was I wearing homer or drunk glasses or did Bouchard seem to be more useful than Russell (Even if we forget about the failed block shot attempt that ended up screening Talbot and leading to a goal) and Benning vs the Devils?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not convinced enough yet that we should burn a year of his ELC, but he was far more effective than I could have expected out of a recently drafted d-man.

He really surprised me when I saw him contain a winger in the corner on two occasions in a manner that led to us gaining possession of the puck.

The speed of his decision-making was quite pleasant, as well. I'm paranoid that it'll lead to turnovers, but he hasn't been burned yet.

He was third best Dman after Larsson and Klefbom in game against Devils. So second best in right side by huge marging.

 

[thadd]

He was third best Dman after Larsson and Klefbom in game against Devils. So second best in right side by huge marging.

Larsson annoyed me so much. Every time he made a point to point pass to Klefbom he was off by 2 meters and it made it impossible for Klefbom to get his shot off. Frustrated THE HELL OUT OF ME>

 

[GMofOilers]

Larsson annoyed me so much. Every time he made a point to point pass to Klefbom he was off by 2 meters and it made it impossible for Klefbom to get his shot off. Frustrated THE HELL OUT OF ME>

Klefbom wasnt good at all.

 

[thadd]

Klefbom wasnt good at all.

He wasn't as bad as he looked. There were over half a dozen times that he was waiting to receive and shoot the puck and Larsson's pass accuracy was so bad that Klefbom had to skate out of position to the point where he couldn't take a shot just to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

 

[GMofOilers]

He wasn't as bad as he looked. There were over half a dozen times that he was waiting to receive and shoot the puck and Larsson's pass accuracy was so bad that Klefbom had to skate out of position to the point where he couldn't take a shot just to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

No he was as bad as he looked. Tire fire just like all last season.

 

[Soundwave]

The entire D sucked ass. They were lucky it was only 5 goals against. They could not even get the puck out of their zone half the time.

 

[thadd]

No he was as bad as he looked. Tire fire just like all last season.

Come on... in the offensive zone, I mean. He wasn't as bad as he looked in the OFFENSIVE zone.

 

[The Batman]

Effortlessly makes crisp passes. Bombs from the point. Calm presence even when he almost scored into the wrong net. This kid is a treat to watch and I'm thrilled we drafted him.

 

[Aerchon]

Klefbom wasnt good at all.

I generally appreciate Larsson more than Klefbom but in game one Klefbom was the better of the two. Neither great but Larsson struggled imo and Klefbom was alright.

 

[Oilhawks]

Effortlessly makes crisp passes. Bombs from the point. Calm presence even when he almost scored into the wrong net. This kid is a treat to watch and I'm thrilled we drafted him.

100%. It's pretty worrisome that he is already looking like one of the top D on the team despite his age and lack of pro experience. How can they send him down?

 

[MessierII]

After seeing fans completely turn on Benning and Klefbom for similar reasons, I dont have much faith Bouchard will get any different treatment

I think it would be different for both these players if they actually produced offense consistently. Klefbom has had over 30 points once and Benning hasn’t even got there.

 

[bobbythebrain]

We'll see how these new coaches do. So far I like that his minutes are down and he actually got a look on the 2nd pp...even if it was brief(the coaches aren't gonna abandon Klef after 1 game, I get that, but hopefully soon)

Cholowski in Det is a good example. Aside from getting huge minutes which he is struggling w/, his value is coming on the pp

Hopefully we keep his minutes down and benefit from his pp usage

If he spends 9 games without a healthy dose of pp, I will happily join the fire Tmac crowd

 

[bucks_oil]

100%. It's pretty worrisome that he is already looking like one of the top D on the team despite his age and lack of pro experience. How can they send him down?

Worrisome? Isn't it a good thing?

And who says they are sending him down? It's game one and it seems he's being given a chance. Yama was one of our better players in the first 6 games. Didn't mean he was ready.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

100%. It's pretty worrisome that he is already looking like one of the top D on the team despite his age and lack of pro experience. How can they send him down?

I actually fail to see how him looking like an NHL level defenseman is a bad thing. If you're trying to imply that he "looks like top-pairing" and assume "the team will keep him there" you're incorrect. Evan Bouchard looks like an NHL defenseman, he looked like he belonged out there with everyone.

Having an 18 year old perform at that level is very good for the team, because it gives them an option they didn't expect to have before the young player showed up. I would expect if Bouchard starts to struggle, he'll be sent back to the OHL. I also expect if he keeps playing as he did in game one, he'll stick around.

Even Bouchard looks like an NHL defenseman, which is just a good thing.

 

[Raab]

Absolutely. With Bouchard, people will need to accept the flubs and errors defensively in order to appreciate the offensive skills. Too many fans, in my opinion, want to tone down defenseman so much so that they are ok or passable in the defensive end. But taking the risk or dynamic play out of their game in order to do this totally limits and crushes the offensive ability. He should be allowed and even advised to play riskier and let his offensive game totally develop. His defensive game can be worked on over the years

You dont draft a high, high, high offensive upside D like Bouchard to be good defensively in years 1-3 of his career. Needless to say, itll be frustrating to watch Bouchard and read HF for his first few seasons because I know Ill be seeing alot of "yeah he can do good things offensively, but did you see that one mistake on D last game, ugh?!? send him down." After seeing fans completely turn on Benning and Klefbom for similar reasons, I dont have much faith Bouchard will get any different treatment

And yet Nurse gets a free pass in this regard despite his limited offensive output.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

And yet Nurse gets a free pass in this regard despite his limited offensive output.

Nurse gets a pass, in you mind, because you hate him and think he's useless regardless of anything else.

 

[Raab]

Nurse gets a pass, in you mind, because you hate him and think he's useless regardless of anything else.

I've seen little criticism of Nurse over the years. Nurse played like complete dog crap on Saturday. To the point he was the 2nd worst dman on the ice after Benning. Bouchard in his limited time looked much better. And yet we have people wanting to send Bouchard down. It's crazy.

 

[Soundwave]

The only huge problem with keeping Bouchard up is there's rumblings the NHL is trying to push Seattle to delay expansion for a year.

If that happens it means the Oilers must protect Bouchard in an expansion draft and it screws up their protection setup. You'd have to likely go 4-4-1

McDavid + RNH + Draisaitl + Puljujarvi (I'll even assume they get rid of Lucic)

Larsson + Bouchard + Klefbom + Nurse

Problem with this is you're likely losing one of Yamamoto or Puljujarvi, you can only protect 4 forwards and McDavid + RNH + Drai + Yamamoto + Puljujarvi is 5. Either that or you have to lose one of Nurse/Larsson/Klefbom.

If this is going to be another gong show season, it's not worth wasting a year of Bouchard's ELC. Let him have 9 games, fine, but send him down and let him tear up the World Juniors.