Evan Bouchard will finish the season with a .ppg and 82 points, +34
- Thread starter Czechboy
- Start date
Kovalev, who's known for his amazing defense.
Haven't seen a hit attempt like that in like half a decade.
cc
Registered User
- Feb 28, 2002
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I don't see how Bouchard is propped up by McDavid any more than Makar is propped up by Mackinnon. Bouchard's production shouldn't be discredited because he plays with great players because I doubt all dmen would be able to produce at that level in the same situation.
MarkusNaslund19
Registered User
- Dec 28, 2005
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Evan Bouchard is world class at the things he's good at (passing, getting shots through from the point, one of the hardest and most accurate shots in the league), but he's an albatross at other things.
He's someone who will always need good players to augment his strengths and fill-in his weaknesses and by that metric he's in one of the best possible situations. In McDavid and Draisaitl he's playing with the core of one of the best powerplays ever. In Ekholm he has a mature and smart partner who makes up for a lot of his mistakes and adds a lot of toughness and intelligence in his own zone and in transition.
Bouchard is the type of guy who, if he got traded/signed to be a top pairing D in a less favorable situation he would get ventilated and the narrative here would flip 180 degrees. Both would be too extreme.
He's a luxury item with some seriously high end tools, but he's not well rounded and is very exploitable when it matters.
Personally, I'm not much of a fan.
He's someone who will always need good players to augment his strengths and fill-in his weaknesses and by that metric he's in one of the best possible situations. In McDavid and Draisaitl he's playing with the core of one of the best powerplays ever. In Ekholm he has a mature and smart partner who makes up for a lot of his mistakes and adds a lot of toughness and intelligence in his own zone and in transition.
Bouchard is the type of guy who, if he got traded/signed to be a top pairing D in a less favorable situation he would get ventilated and the narrative here would flip 180 degrees. Both would be too extreme.
He's a luxury item with some seriously high end tools, but he's not well rounded and is very exploitable when it matters.
Personally, I'm not much of a fan.
Oleksiak
Registered User
Almost like there's more important things legit NHL defencemen can do, unlike Bouchard.
This shows how little your “eye test” means.
Unless you enjoy nurse going starfish and bleeding goals against.
The only thing nurse does better is skate and fight, and usually all his skating does is get him out of position because he’s too dumb to read the play
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
A few weeks back? Hughes has had no minus games against Vegas since December when he was a -1 in one game. Prior to that it was the 2021-22 season since he had a minus game.
In 12 games against VGK Hughes has 5 goals and 10 assists. Let the bullying continue.
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CantHaveTkachev
Legends
Holy crap, he played 12 games against Vegas this year?
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
Well that flew over your head in a hurry. Sure hope it didn't hurt anybody when it reentered the atmosphere.
CantHaveTkachev
Legends
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
CantHaveTkachev
Legends
Sure but it doesn’t matter how many points players like McDavid and Hughes score..are they not judged on wins?
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
Are you suggesting they're not good players unless they're on a team with a winning record?
Dobson - all around legit
Miller - all around legit
Bouchard = legit - defense
Hronek - good all around, could be slightly bigger/better defensively
Byram - don’t like his injury history
Chips
Registered User
- Aug 19, 2015
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My 2 cents, similar to the Canucks PDO convo (they were legit getting lucky relative to what they were, but what they were was genuinely better than the previous year), I think there’s people on both sides who could meet in the middle. He’s not Tyson Barrie, but realistically he does seem to benefit from teammates
Even Oilers fans (I lurk a few teams boards) were dumping on him a ton before Ekholm got his game back. If I remember correct his analytics saw a sizable jump last year pre and post Ekholm trade as well
He’s really good and I’m not saying I dont notice him, but Q Hughes and healthy Makar, Josi always stood out to me a lot more obviously individually
Even Oilers fans (I lurk a few teams boards) were dumping on him a ton before Ekholm got his game back. If I remember correct his analytics saw a sizable jump last year pre and post Ekholm trade as well
He’s really good and I’m not saying I dont notice him, but Q Hughes and healthy Makar, Josi always stood out to me a lot more obviously individually
KevinFinnerty
I bomb atomically...
Wheres that canuck fan that said Bouchard isnt an nhl defenseman and would never play a game in the NHL?
GreeningOil
Yarpmeister
Specifically, which defensemen had better seasons, that didn’t get to play with other elite players?
Oilers fans like pumping this guy up because we haven’t seen a player with talent like his in a long time.
GreeningOil
Yarpmeister
What sort of context? Here is the NHL defensive leaders in goals for & against.
Attachments
Its tough. Yes hes flawed and yes he'll be likely overpaid. But I'm not sure you could name more than 10 defenders that if traded straight up for Bouchard (Ignoring handedness) that would make the current version of the Oilers a better team.
You have the obvious
Makar, Hughes, Fox, Heiskanen, Dahlin, Josi, Mcavoy, Pietrangelo. Omitting Hedman and Doughty because of age.
But the next tier with players like Morrisey, Sergachev, Lindholm, Hamilton, Theodore, Montour, Slavin etc. Woud a 1 for 1 trade for any of these players, or players in the secondary tier of defensemen in the league, make the oilers a better team? Would Slavins superior defensive play be a net benefit to the loss of Bouchards contributions on offense?
You just have to bite the bullet and pay him.
I mean, all teams have good players but none have mcdavid and only a few have truly elite.
But Offensively? Hughes, Josi, Makar (plays with Mackinnon but he’s got more than enough credibility), Fox, Dobson and Morissey (not on great offensive teams). Honestly Matheson had a good season playing on a shit Montreal team, and there are a few others in his range too that would be likely be pushing ppg if they played on Edmonton.
Defensively is a whole new argument which I won’t get into.
Bouchard has definitely had a great season and oilers fans should be excited, but my point was that we’ve seen many players on Edmonton have career years only to do much worse the next year so the fans should take it easy with shoving him down our throat all season. And my Barrie comment was referring to the fact that I think Barrie would have put up similar points this year if he switched places with Bouchard.
GreeningOil
Yarpmeister
This is a hot take honestly. Barrie is nowhere close to Bouchard. The Oilers would not have been close to as good if you swapped them.
Makar has always played with MacKinnon & Rantanen. He’s good but suggesting he doesn’t greatly benefit from high end talent is asinine.
Fox plays with Panarin. Winnipeg has some solid forwards too.
Discrediting Oilers is what people love to do on here. We’re not saying he’s the best player in the NHL. He is very good though and will get better
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