'It's just weird': Oilers GM defends star Edmonton d-man on new mega contract

Edmonton Journal

a day ago

Article content
2. As Bowman points out, the main thing Oilers fans and pundits complain about when it comes to Bouchard is his turnover. Bowman suggest we should all way that against the good things that Bouchard does during a game, such as launch blistering shots on net, making great stretch passes to launch dangerous attacks, and defend well positionally.
Article content
That makes sense for me.
Article content
3. One way to look at Bouchard's puck management is to look at the number of stretch passes he makes that lead to Grade A shots, then compare that to the number of turnovers he makes that lead to Grade A shots against. Stretch passes are a wicked attacking weapon in hockey. They're not easy to execute.
Article content
What we see is that the last two years in the playoffs, Bouchard has been Edmonton's best d-man at ripping stretch passes. In 2025 he made 1.75 stretch passes for a Grade A shot for every turnover he made leading to a Grade A shot against at even strength. The team average was 0.81 stretch passes for every turnover, so he was more than twice as good as the average Oilers d-man.
Article content
Article content
Bouchard was also strong in this same category in the 2023-24 regular season, with 40 stretch passes leading to Grade A shots and just 33 turnovers leading to Grade A shots against.
Article content
But this past regular season was a different story. Bouchard made 23 stretch passes but 35 turnovers. Little wonder that some folks noticed this negative ratio of 0.69 stretch passes for every turnover and felt he wasn't play that well. At times he wasn't.
Article content
Article content
3. Another way to rate and rank d-men is to look at their total contributions to Grade A shots (shots, passes, hard charges at the net and battles won) compared to their total mistakes on Grade A shots against at even strength (lost battles, turnovers, bad pinches, missed assignments, bad line changes, bad deflections).
Article content
4. In this category, Bouchard has been the Oiler's best d-man for the past two years. He was dominant in particular in 2023-24. He slipped a bit last year, but was still the team's best d-man, just ahead of Jake Walman, Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm. In the playoffs, Bouchard again shot up and was by far the Oil's best d-man the past two seasons.
Article content
Article content
5. When you take in all these factors, I'll suggest that Bowman has a point, that is a bit weird that there's so much criticism of Bouchard, especially when we consider his superlative play in the playoffs, where he's been an absolute stone-cold killer on the attack and solid on defence for two years running.
Article content
Bouchard comes through for the Oilers when they need him most, and when so many other players on the Oilers fail to rise to the occasion.
Article content
He's the kind of player who can drive a team to Stanley Cup wins and to Olympic gold medals.
Article content
Article content