Top 3 Fantasy Breakout Players On The Edmonton Oilers for 2022

Evan Bouchard (81GP-12G-31A)

Coming into his second full NHL season I think we are going to see a big jump in Evan Bouchard’s numbers and minutes played. This is crazy to say considering he was averaging just over half a point a game in his first season.

The main reason I think he is going to have a bump in point is due to the powerplay. Last season the Edmonton Oilers stilled used Tyson Barrie mainly as their first unit powerplay guy. This year I think that Bouchard is going to get a longer look there.

Of Bouchard’s 43 points last season only 7 of them came on the powerplay. Compare that to Tyson Barrie’s 21 powerplay points. Even in Bouchard can get 50% of Barrie’s powerplay time adds around 25% more points than he got last year.

There is the chance that the Edmonton Oilers still use Barrie as their number one powerplay man. That doesn’t mean that you don’t pick up Bouchard over him in your draft. Even with the 14 more point on the powerplay Bouchard still ended up with 2 more points that Barrie.

This is why if you need to select a defenseman, I would chose Bouchard as my top Edmonton Oilers defenseman. He is already getting the most point as a blue liner on the team and there is a chance that he could be getting a lot more powerplay time this year.