Trade Bouchard?? Oilers better to stick with polarizing defenceman
Patience is starting to run out for Edmonton Oilers fans.
What was supposed to be a season full of success and excitement has quickly transformed into the absolute worst-case scenario that the fanbase could imagine. Instead of battling it out for the division lead with the likes of the Vegas Golden Knights, the team is desperately trying to stay ahead of the league-worst San Jose Sharks.
Oilers fans can more or less agree on a few things that have caused this nightmare start to the season. The goaltending has not been up to NHL standards, and the team as a whole has not been able to defend at an adequate level. Compound that with some slower-than-usual starts from Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid and you have a pretty good idea of why the Oilers are where they are.
One thing fans can’t seem to agree on is how much blame should be shovelled onto defenceman Evan Bouchard, who is quickly evolving into the team’s latest hot-button player.
Bouchard entered the season with some lofty expectations. He had an amazing second half of last season and led all NHL defencemen in playoff scoring, despite the Oilers being eliminated in the second round.
This season represented his first full year quarterbacking the Oilers’ power-play and getting premier minutes at even-strength. Lots of fans thought Bouchard had the potential to do something special with the Oilers and, in a lot of ways, he has.
The production from the 24-year-old has been stellar. In 17 games this season, Bouchard has four goals and 17 points, putting him on pace for an incredible 82-point season. This would be the highest-scoring season for an Oilers defenceman since Paul Coffey scored 138 points in 1985-86.
In fact, this would also make Bouchard the only Oilers defenceman outside of Coffey to score 80 points in a single season. From an offensive standpoint, the 2018 first-rounder has lived up to the hype.
Despite this elite production, some fans are not pleased with Bouchard’s work in the defensive end. As it stands, Natural Stat Trick says that he has been on the ice for 23 goals against this season, which is third-most behind Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane.
The only way the Oilers can start to leaking goals is to trade Bouchard for a goalie. If you keep Bouch around it wouldnāt matter if you had Marty Brodeur in their your still giving up 4 a night
— Doug (@DougWeight39) November 21, 2023
Bench Bouchard. #oilers
Someone teach him to play defence, please!!
— staffordgreer.bsky.social (@stafford_greer) November 21, 2023
Until the Oilers find a way to trade Nurse and Bouchard they will never win the Stanley Cup! https://t.co/DcLJUApnxq
— Mr. GeeBee (@GeebeeMr) November 21, 2023
Curiously enough, other advanced stats seem to point to this not being entirely on Bouchard. Despite leading Edmonton defencemen in goals allowed, Bouchard has had next to no help from his goaltenders. When Bouchard is on the ice, Oilers goalies have a .848 save percentage, which is fourth-worst on the team.
This wouldn’t mean much if Bouchard was leaking chances-against but, again, the numbers seem to indicate otherwise. The Oakville, Ontario, native leads the Oilers in scoring chances-for percentage (SCF%) at 66.92%, being on the ice for 269 chances-for and just 133 chances-against. It seems like every mistake is winding up in the back of the Oilers’ net, which is not normally the case in the NHL.
Fans have been quick to point this out whenever the narrative skews against Bouchard.
Bouchard is second on the team for points and has the lowest scoring chances against. He makes mistakes but all the players do. No one would even suggest this if the Oilers had average goaltending. Stop scapegoating players who arenāt the problem. The goaltending is the problem. https://t.co/BBxjMht6t8
— Zinger (@Zinger012) November 22, 2023
We would be having zero Evan Bouchard discourse if this team had an actual goalie. Bouchard isnāt even bad defensively ā ļø https://t.co/QIZtPHd25y
— Joshua š£ (@BouchBombs) November 22, 2023
Bouchard has had 8 bad defensive games and 8 good defensive games by my count this season. Offensively, He's had 14 great games and 2 bad games.
Trading him would be a funny and pretty backward thing to do.
— Mathew Panchyshyn (@mathewjdp) November 22, 2023
Bouchard is a unique defenceman, the likes of which the Oilers have not seen since Chris Pronger. His ability to create offence from the blueline is unmatched, and he is the team’s best puck-moving defenceman, no doubt about it.
There are warts on his defensive game that can make him look like the obvious culprit on some goals, but to pin all those mistakes solely on him is to overlook the very poor play from Edmonton’s goaltending.
Is he a perfect defenceman? Not at all, but the numbers indicate that the good heavily outweighs the bad.
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