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Evan Bouchard on pace to join Oilers legend in record books

Preston Hodgkinson
Preston Hodgkinson
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Oct 30 2023, 10:37 pm
Evan Bouchard on pace to join Oilers legend in record books
Jamie Sabau/USA TODAY Sports

Edmonton Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard is on pace to do something that only Paul Coffey has done for the franchise.

The 24-year-old has been an offensive threat from the Edmonton blueline early this season. Through eight games, Bouchard has scored three goals and nine points, which is tied for second in the league for defencemen and is just a single point off of the lead.

This means that Bouchard is scoring at a pace of 1.12 points per game. If he keeps this pace and plays in all 82 games this season, Bouchard could technically finish the season with about 91 points, shattering his previous career-high of 43 set during his rookie season in 2021/22.

It would also land him in very distinguished territory, making him the first Oilers defenceman other than Coffey to record more than 64 points in a season.

Continuing to score at that pace will be a difficult task and it might be easy to discredit Bouchard’s early-season production as unsustainable. However, this isn’t too far off from how the Oakville, Ontario, native has performed dating back to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline.

Since the arrival of Mattias Ekholm on February 28, Bouchard has been among the very best offensive defencemen in the league. In the last 21 games of the 2022/23 season, Bouchard scored 19 points. He then followed that up with 17 points in 13 playoff games, which led all defenceman in playoff scoring despite the Oilers getting eliminated in the second round.

Over the course of those 34 games, Bouchard was scoring 1.05 points per game. The production we are seeing this season is just slightly above how he was producing at the end of last season and into the playoffs.

An NHL season is a long one and Bouchard is bound to have some offensive slumps here and there. Projecting a young defenceman to score 91 points when his current career high is 43 is a bit ambitious. Scoring at least 64 points should definitely be in the realm of possibility, especially if he gets back to playing top-pairing minutes and continues to quarterback Edmonton’s power play.

To reach 64 points, Bouchard will have to score 55 points over the next 74 games which is a pace of 0.74 points per game. Something that isn’t insurmountable for a player of Bouchard’s talent and role.

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