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Edmonton Oilers: Evan Bouchard and Development Curves

By Ryan Boonstra |
CALGARY, AB - SEPTEMBER 17: Edmonton Oilers Defenceman Evan Bouchard (75) is checked by Calgary Flames Left Wing Ryan Lomberg (56) during the first period of an NHL game where the Calgary Flames hosted the Edmonton Oilers Monday, September 17 at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, AB. (Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
CALGARY, AB - SEPTEMBER 17: Edmonton Oilers Defenceman Evan Bouchard (75) is checked by Calgary Flames Left Wing Ryan Lomberg (56) during the first period of an NHL game where the Calgary Flames hosted the Edmonton Oilers Monday, September 17 at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, AB. (Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

I’m very excited about Bouchard. It feels like the Edmonton Oilers have been waiting for a decade to get that top pairing RHD; luckily for us, Bouchard gives us our best chance to get one.

Edmonton Oilers: The unfortunate reality is that Evan Bouchard is not NHL ready. Although he will be starting the 18/19 season on the Edmonton Oilers, stats say he won’t stick. When you look at comparable players to where Bouchard was drafted, you quickly realize that NHL defensemen develop slow. It is extremely rare for defensemen to jump straight into the NHL from their draft year. Even P.K Subban played both in the CHL and in the AHL before making the jump to the NHL.

As an NHL general manager, you aren’t just tasked with making an NHL team succeed. While that is the primary job that Chiarelli has, he must also make sure he does what is right for his prospects. The last thing Oilers fans need is another high-level prospect that tanks because he’s rushed to the NHL. This leaves Chiarelli with limited options as to what to do with Bouchard.

Pietrangelo Route

A player whose career path makes sense to use as a guideline for Bouchard is none other than Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo. In his case, he started his rookie season in St. Louis to get NHL experience. This is the most logical route for the Oilers to take as especially this season, getting Bouchard exposure to his future teammates is essential. I say this season especially as they will be starting the year with a lengthy road trip, beginning in Stockholm Sweden.

After his initial nine-game audition, Pietrangelo was sent to the World Junior Championship in 2009 wherein he won a gold medal. After the tournament, Pietrangelo was then sent back to the OHL where he finished that season.

I feel like giving Bouchard NHL experience, tournament experience, then giving him the rest of the season to play on a stacked London Knights squad is best for his development. Stacked may be an understatement as Bouchard will most likely be paired with Chicago draft pick Adam Boqvist– who may be the most talented defenseman in the 2018 draft.

This strategy makes the most sense from both a GM who wants to succeed and a GM who wants his prospects to mature correctly. Getting Bouchard 9 games not only helps him but also helps Ethan Bear as well. The pacing of the NHL is swift and, there is usually an adjustment period for players.

Having Bear play at least nine fewer games while Bouchard gets a look will help with that fatigue. It also will help Bear as the competition from having Bouchard and him in the same spot to start the year will hopefully get him hungry for minutes when Bouchard is sent down.

How This Affects the Edmonton Oilers Roster

If the Oilers were to send Bouchard down to the minors after his nine-game stint, it would leave Edmonton with a set list of 7 NHL defenseman. The pairings in this scenario would look like this:

1. Klefbom-Larsson

2. Nurse-Benning

3. Russell-Bear

4. Garrison

While this is a defense corps that is not ideal, it can potentially hold its own. Klefbom and Larsson are known commodities at this point, and it’s reasonable to expect them to play 22-24 minutes a night. Nurse and Benning both took steps forward last season, in both scoring and possession metrics.

Nurse scored six times and added 20 assists to leapfrog his point total from last year’s 11. Even though those 11 points came in only 44 games, Nurse outpaced his scoring totals from .25 points a game to .32 points a game. Benning had similar improvements in his game going from 3 goals and 12 assists to 6 goals and 15 assists. while that might not seem as significant one must take into account that he played bottom pairing minutes.

Taking that into account it’s impressive his point total went from .24 points to .29 points a game. Some of that production came from second unit power-play time, which unfortunately for Benning, may go to Bear/Bouchard.

Finally the bottom pairing, where Bouchard most likely will be slotted. Most likely, Kris Russell will be on the bottom pairing. I have no issue with him there as a mentor to Bear/Bouchard. Learning the defensive aspects of NHL is one of the more difficult things for a defender to learn and to have Kris “cowboy” Russell there to teach defensive positioning will be good for development.

Kris Russell had a very productive season last year. While his possession metrics still are not pretty (when your whole defensive strategy is boards and out, you will have lousy possession metrics) his four goals and 17 assists were the highest in his career since 2014-15 when he had 34 points with Calgary.

Final Thoughts

I have not been this excited about the Oilers prospect pool in a long time. While Bouchard has been impressive, there have been many others this camp that have shone. From Mcleod being one of the last cuts in training camp to Benson having a very successful first camp (Finally!).

This, along with the domination we’ve seen from both Yamamoto and Puljujarvi this preseason, our forward depth is all of a sudden very good. Not to mention the back-end where all of Bouchard, Jones, and Bear emerged as future NHL options. The future of this team’s makeup suddenly seems very bright.

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