I do question the better defensively part. 22% goals for without McDavid, but 100% with
He feasted on Calgary with everyone else for sure.
It was a weird playoffs. Whole team had issues with consistency against LA who we should have beat pretty handily. Calgary just rolled over like losers. Then we get outclassed in a sweep. Keith was endlessly targeted on zone entries which was a handicap for Bouch. Barrie moved up and down the lineup. Nurse on one leg. Whole team had to deal with periods of Smith being a sieve and letting in weak shots. Was a hard playoffs to really judge many guys aside from McDrai who went supernova. I'm kinda sticking with the regular season for trying to figure out what guys will do next season.
Agree 4.5M is hard to move. Seattle would have been ideal, but they just full on gambled on broken Schultz to be their RHD offensive savior. Not sure who works anymore.
Bumping stats won't matter. He doesn't need PP points to make his case for 7M+ if he scores >30 ES points again. Nurse didn't need it either. When you produce that much at ES, especially if you blow out of the water a guy on the same team being gifted PP time, the PP production can just be assumed. And in the worst case, if Bouch's camp thinks he's being kept off the PP just to try to hurt his numbers...they aren't stupid. They will just insist on bridge deals until the Oilers are forced to let him get a 70 point season with the PP time, then we get to pay him 9M+ if we want to keep him.
Barrie scored 32 ES points almost a decade ago. His most recent total was 17. Less than half what Bouch produced.