Thoughts on Evan Bouchard?

[Darkwing Puck]

He's been playing reasonably well since getting into the Oilers lineup, and is currently on the second PP unit. The Oiler's PP2 is a lot less impressive than their PP1, but it's hard not to like a young player with the potential to be quarterbacking powerplay with McDavid and Draisaitl in the not too distant future. I do worry about what will happen when Ethan Bear comes back, to say nothing of the risk that the Oilers like what they've seen from Tyson Barrie and push to resign him for next season. Is he worth an add or would it be better to take a look at someone like Dante Fabbro (though Fabbro doesn't currently seem to be getting any PP time with the Preds).

[stevegamer]

I don't think Bear is real threat to a PP1 path for Bouchard. Bouchard will also hit & block some, so I'd take a flyer on him over Fabbro.

Josi et al >>>> Barrie as a pending FA
Oilers offense >>> Predators offense

[chuckcouples]

Bouchard's a solid dman who's not going to get much PP time this season unless the Oilers don't dress Barrie. Bouchard is not going to get PP time ahead of Barrie or Nurse at this stage of his career. With that said, Bouchard's ability to get shots to the net will always have him get you a ton of shots. This will also lead to him getting a few points. With Tippett coaching, Bouchard probably won't get enough ice time to be a valuable fantasy player this season but his ice time will increase next year when Tyson Barrie is no longer an Oiler.

To recap, for this season both Fabbro and Bouchard will not get you many points (about .35 per game), Barrie will get you more shots while Fabbro will get you more hits and blocked shots.
Next season, Bouchard will surpass Fabbro in points, shots and probably be close to Fabbro in hits and blocked shots.

Make your decision based on that information!

[FFleming5]

I posted a similar thread a few weeks ago when Bouchard had his first night and peak with 20 minutes of ice time. By tonight, his usage has really fallen back with 12 minutes of use. Some pointed that he had made been making some gaffes on defense -- which is only to be expected given that he's now played like his 10th NHL game.

That being said, I don't think he gets 1st pairing anytime soon; however, from watching him play he looks to be the best player to move into that coveted PP1 role at some point in the next few years. Nurse-Bear play very well together and once Bear is healthy, I don't see this pairing changing any time soon.

I hope Holland doesn't re-sign Barrie - while having nothing against this player, I don't think he is needed and the Oilers are already having issues with the cap and could really use the dollars on more forward depth down the lineup. Also, Yamamoto will be getting paid more, and RNH will be getting his first UFA deal.

I think it makes way more sense to re-sign Larsson to eat the hard minutes than to pay Barrie to do the same thing Bouchard could potentially while on his rookie deal. Nurse has also looked like he can definitely run the powerplay as well making Barrie superfluous. I think this is really going to be a decision between Barrie and Larsson as there are too many players, and not enough chairs. But who knows, I've watched in horror Holland's horrible contract decisions with the Red Wings since 2010