As per Sodertalje’s IG account, Edmonton Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard has been recalled from his loan to the Allsvenskan team and will head to Edmonton for training camp.
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) December 12, 2020
Bouchard had a fantastic time over in Sweden’s Allsvenskan division putting up six goals and eleven assists in 23 games. 76 penalty minutes as well… Although, I think some of those PIMs came at the end of a game. Even though, that is a substantial number for only 23 games.
Now that the overseas experience is out of the way for Old Man Bouchard, he can get to work earning a spot on the Oilers’ roster for 2020-21 which might be a bit easier than initially expected.
Ethan Bear has been training, yes…but playing? No. Now, I’m not sure Bouchard sticks once the AHL resumes because he still needs to get lots of reps. And Ethan Bear will start in the Top 4. But instead of potentially worrying about his contract Ethan had better be ready to go right out of the gate.
There’s no guarantee that Ethan Bear gets top-4 minutes this year, I’ll say that right off the bat. If Adam Larsson and Tyson Barrie are at peak form, I don’t see how Bear beats them out with regards to overall TOI. Adding to that is the point that Mr. Leavins makes, Bouchard has been playing and Bear hasn’t. Not only that, but Bear hasn’t signed a contract to play yet… If that drags out, Bouchard is near a lock to get that third spot on the right-side I feel.
This upcoming shortened season is crucial for the former London Knights d-man. He has to make his mark or there’s a chance that he could become trade bait in my opinion. All the trade chatter over the past 18 months that included his name are impossible to ignore and the pressure will continue to mount in Edmonton until they become Stanley Cup contenders. If they keep plodding along, Ken Holland will be forced to make a bigger, riskier move and I feel that it might be Bouchard that is the one that gets included in that.
That said, I have full confidence in him. Similar to Bear, players like McDavid and Draisaitl will want to play with him because he can get them the puck fast. People forget (including those within the club) Evan Bouchard might still be this organization’s best passer.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
If the 2020-21 NHL season finally gets the green light, the Edmonton Oilers have a plethora of young stars, bounceback candidates, and under-the-radar players that could break out and assert their position in the league. Here are the three most likely from the Oilers,
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Jesse Puljujarvi
I think it’s probably a bit obvious, maybe too obvious, to predict that Edmonton’s 4th overall pick in 2016, Jesse Puljujarvi, is due for a breakout.
The big Finn who never stops smiling can feel the ultimate sense of relief knowing that he won’t be coming back to Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, or Peter Chiarelli anymore and that he’s in good hands with Coach Tippett and GM Ken Holland. Both veteran NHL men have put over a year into building a rapport with Puljujarvi and attempting to earn his trust so that he would feel comfortable enough to return and give the Oilers one more shot.
After leaving Edmonton and returning to Oulu Karpat, Pulju racked up 65 points in 71 games with nearly half of those being goals (31). This number is still rising as he hasn’t left the Finnish club as of yet.
When he’s inserted into the Oilers lineup, the expectations are that he’ll start on the 3rd line with long-time NHLers Kyle Turris (a former 3rd overall pick in 2007) and Tyler Ennis. He’ll be getting the kind of linemates he should’ve had all along in Edmonton in his first three seasons, skaters who have the skill to play with him, and he’ll be able to provide some muscle on the walls in addition to being able to open up ice for Turris and Ennis.
Maybe most importantly, he’ll be playing with a couple of gentlemen who are willing to be on the same line as him.
I also expect Jesse to get some time on the 2nd unit PP as well as some TOI on the penalty kill. It can’t be said as to how much, but I believe Coach Tippett will at least give it a go.
It’s tough to predict what kind of production he could bring with the season unlikely to be 82-games long, but just to save time, IF there was a full season, a goal of 15 ginos and 15 apples is not a stretch for me. In fact, 20 goals (or the prorated equivalent of) is well within reach for Puljujarvi.
Caleb Jones
When Caleb Jones and Ethan Bear were running the show in Bakersfield, it might shock you to know, but it was Jones who was the better defender at that level (in my opinion). His playing style at that level was similar to that of former Edmonton Oilers Andrej Sekera. The young American was on Bakersfield’s top pair and I’d describe him as a smooth operator who could skate, pass, get the puck on net, lug it down the ice, and play sound defense. In addition to all of that, he played both his strong side and his weak side, and very well I might add.
Now, last year was a bit of a revelation for almost everyone with regards to the former Portland Winterhawk. We were all watching Ethan Bear have this outstanding season and then, as they do in Edmonton, injuries happened and Jones was forced to play 20-minutes a game for a few nights. He tackled that challenge admirably and that is what is leading many to predict that he’s ready for 2nd-pairing TOI, including me.
Ideally, I’d love to see him start on the 3rd pairing and work his way up for one more year but as they say, only the player can tell you if he’s ready. If CJ is good to go, they get that boy up on the 2nd pair and let him work his magic, baby!
Fact check time. We’re five years into this investment and just starting to have some dividends paid out. I have a great feeling that Jones will have a really solid prorated 20-25pt campaign in 2020-21, but I’m not 100% certain he’ll be an Oiler long-term with Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov really coming on and an expansion draft on the horizon.
Evan Bouchard
What more has to be said about Old Man Bouchard?
There seems to be a faction of the Edmonton Oilers scouting staff or management that feel Bouchard lacks a certain “sense of urgency” in his game, or at least that’s the impression I get when I listen to Ryan Rishaug talk about him on the radio.
One question though, have you ever noticed Dougie Hamilton’s “sense of urgency”? What about Larry Murphy’s or Nicklas Lidstrom’s?
Some players play the game in a rocking chair and let the game come to them. Evan Bouchard, I believe, is one of them. We’ve heard Holland and others say that he picked up some bad habits in Junior because he played so much, he had to learn how to conserve energy, and they wanted him to go all-out every shift, right? It sounds similar to when the Oilers tried to make Nail Yakupov a 200ft winger…
The fact of the matter is, Bouchard can play Ryan Suter-like minutes and I reckon he will once he’s a full-time NHLer. Then nobody will be complaining about how he lacks a certain intensity on the ice. When he’s ripping passes to a breaking McDavid or Draisaitl and bombing clappers from the point ala Al MacInnis, you won’t hear about how he should dig in more along the boards or move the puck faster. He was the team’s best passer at age 18… That hasn’t changed.
Bouchard is so good that they need to work to his strengths and supplement him with the most suitable d-partner in order to facilitate them. If the Oilers do that, they could have themselves the first Calder Trophy winner in franchise history. He’s that good offensively and we know, point production is how you get your name on the ballot.
You’re probably wondering how he’s going to be one of Edmonton’s breakout players with Adam Larsson, Tyson Barrie, and Ethan Bear ahead of him on the depth chart, right? Well, someone is going to get hurt or traded and that’s when Bouchard will get his shot. It’s inevitable and I suspect it’ll be Adam Larsson that is on the move or hurt.
If all the shoes dropped and Bouchard got into 30 games this year, 20 points or more wouldn’t shock me from him. Once Tippett sees how good he is at getting the puck to Edmonton’s stars and how well his shots get to the net, he’ll earn more ice time.
In yesterday’s post, I talked about a potentially disastrous scenario where the Edmonton Oilers could find themselves in a position where they would need to re-sign Philip Broberg, Dmitri Samorukov, and Evan Bouchard in the same off-season and it was pointed out to me by the famed comments section contributor in the Oilogosphere, Original Pouzar, that the Oilers wouldn’t need to worry about that because all three of those players’ deals will expire in a staggered fashion.
Samorukov’s has already kicked in, so his contract with expire in two seasons, OP believes that Bouchard will start his this season, so he’ll have three more years on his ELC remaining, and the countdown will start on Broberg’s in 2021-22 (maybe) and running out in four years (maybe).
So yeah, I kinda air-balled that one. That said, in my defense, I was simply pointing out that the Oilers could be in a very mucky predicament if their big RFAs all had outstanding seasons and were worthy of getting locked up to long-term deals.
What I really messed up on was the players I used. I should’ve used Caleb Jones and Jesse Puljujarvi, whose contracts are up in two years like Samorukov. We might be adding Ethan Bear to that list too.
As Original Pouzar pointed out in that comments section discussion, all teams have handfuls of RFAs that they need to re-sign, I simply feel like not a lot of clubs have the (potential) quality of players needing to be re-upped at the same time.
It’s an unlikely scenario, but I still believe it shouldn’t be glossed over.
Now getting to someone who might have to admit they were wrong…
Mike Zanier (PxP man in the SHL) said that he thinks Philip Broberg will be a #5/6 dman in the NHL.
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) November 10, 2020
What Zanier also said on Oilers Now was that he didn’t think that the offense will translate for Broberg in the NHL.
I don’t know about that.
I feel like Broberg is going to be the stud Edmonton has been looking for on defence for such a long time. He makes mistakes and dumb plays from time to time, but he’s got the hockey IQ to make up for that. I mean, do you remember what Paul Coffey’s nickname was early in his career with the Oilers? “Cough it up’ Coffey… Paul also had a pretty good partner in Edmonton by the name of Charlie Huddy.
Maybe Ethan Bear is this generation’s Huddy? Maybe the Oilers play him with Broberg when the time comes? Maybe a superstar is born? Who knows?
Now, I’m not comparing a legend like Paul Coffey to Philip Broberg, I’m just saying that offensive defenders are prone to mistakes partially because they have the puck a lot and they’re trying to make plays happen. This kind of player desperately needs the right d-partner to maximize potential and success though…
I have seen comparisons to Darnell Nurse and I’m sorry, I can’t see that at all. Broberg makes things happen in the offensive zone, he’s not just a hammer looking for a nail. Now, both players are fast and skate well, but Broberg is a much much better skater and playmaker. Overall, the Swede’s offensive game outshines Nurse’s in my opinion, but Nurse’s defensive contributions are obviously better at the moment.
Bringing it all back full circle, what if Broberg finishes his year in Sweden and joins the Oilers for the latter portion of their season? Will his ELC kick in a year earlier alongside Evan Bouchard’s? Maybe two and three years from now, we’re going to be talking about the Oilers, in the same manner, we are the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Hopefully, because they’ve won a Stanley Cup and not so much because they’re in salary cap hell.
Yesterday, Edmonton Oilers play-by-play colorman Bob Stauffer put out the following tweet with regards to the club’s potential candidates for its 7th defenceman position,
Bouchard finished the game with 1-2-3 and now has 4-7-11 in 16GP for Sodertalje. Shaping up as a battle between Bouchard and William Lagesson for the #7 D spot with the Oilers. https://t.co/mVIz6vGr2z
Now, am I the only one that thinks this “battle” for #7 is being media driven? I mean, ask yourself, if you’re the GM of a club and you have one of your best prospects bubbling under; would you want him winning the press box spot on the club or do you think it would be best of he was earning a spot as the 5th or 6th d-man?
It makes no sense to me why the Oilers under Ken Holland would want Bouchard in Edmonton playing sparingly as opposed to getting big minutes for their AHL affiliate and working on his deficiences at that level.
William Lagesson has pretty much done all he can in the divisions below the NHL and it’s time for him to be given an opportunity. Signing him to that two-year deal also made him available to be selected in the Seattle Kraken expansion draft. Although, I don’t think they’ll take him. I figure there’ll be better options from Edmonton.
Two other points on this,
Lagesson is not exempt from waivers anymore whereas Bouchard is.
Stauffer is also constantly talking about the Oilers adding another veteran defenceman with experience.
I’m not fully convinced that Holland won’t use Bouchard in a trade either as Edmonton STILL does not have a no.1 defenceman on its team.
Could that come though in the form of Philip Broberg? It might, which brings me to the next topic, what happens if the Oilers graduate Broberg, Bouchard (granted he’s still with the team), and Dmitri Samorukov around the same time?
Could you imagine all three starting the clocks on their ELCs and having them expire in the same off-season? Wouldn’t that be some kind of RFA re-signing Hell akin to what Tampa is going through whilst having Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev, and Erik Cernak all out of contract and vulnerable to an offer-sheet and not being able to move a roster player in order to sign them.
We know that offer-sheets aren’t common and with the financial landscape of the league looking as bleak as it is, their even more less likely to occur. Unless… In the next three years, fans are allowed to fill arenas to full capacity resulting in a landslide of revenue for the NHL, its clubs, and its players. The salary cap would sky rocket and irresponsible spending would be back! Hooray (kind of)!
Could the Oilers avoid a massive headache by introducing Broberg this year, Bouchard in 2021-22, and Samorukov the year following?
What’s your time frame look like for these three defenders? Let me know in the comments below!
Yesterday, the best player in the NHL, Leon Draisaitl, was named as one of the three Hart Trophy finalists along with the Rangers’ Artemi Panarin and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Great news but expected news nonetheless.
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Now we can expect to hear the analytics community really ramp things up in support of Artemi Panarin as this year’s winner. The basis of their argument to really simplify it is that the best player in the NHL should not only be great offensively but defensively as well and to that, I ask that community, how many minutes did Panarin play on the penalty kill this year? Because that is really a defining factor in determining who is simply a one-way player and who is considered a two-way one.
Geez, it doesn’t look like Artemi’s coach trusted him enough on the defensive side of the game to put him in the most defensively challenging scenarios. Well, maybe it was because he was bloody trash on the PK as indicated by his -7.92 GA/60 (rel) and -8 xGA/60 (rel) during that time…
Sure, Leon might be a minus player at all strengths but if I recall correctly, isn’t he +5 at 5×5? My math could be off mind you.
Look, here’s the deal. Since 2005 only three players have won the Hart without having
A 10+ difference in goals
A 10+ difference in assists
A 10+ difference in total points
between the leader and the player in second place in these categories.
Those three players were Taylor Hall (2018), Corey Perry (2011), and Sidney Crosby (2007)
So Leon has a 15 point lead on Panarin and a 17 point lead on MacKinnon, a 16 goal lead on Panarin and a 13 goal lead on MacKinnon, and only a 4 assist lead on Panarin and a 9 assist lead on MacKinnon.
**Mini Rant Alert**
But some are happy to simply say Draisaitl’s a -7 and throw the rest of the context out. I mean, for Pete’s sake, Panarin needed a GD pandemic to take place for the Rangers to even be in a potential playoff spot and for him to be considered for the trophy. It’s not like Shesterkin didn’t come in and save their butts from being a lottery team… Similar to when the Devils’ backup goalie, Keith Kincaid I think his name is, did his best Marty Brodeur impression and got NJ into the playoffs (barely) and Hall winning the Hart as a result even though McDavid had ten more points than him.
Then there are guys like Bruins beat writer Joe Haggerty, who know +/- is a BS stat to use in this argument, but still use it! It’s dumb and everybody knows it unless they need to use it to support their side of an already failed argument…
If Leon doesn’t win it and Panarin does, it won’t be because the German had a dash seven on his stat line… Now, if MacKinnon wins it, I won’t be too hard done by there.
**Fin**
Spector and Stauffer on Broberg
Yesterday morning Sportsnet’s Mark Spector and host of Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer, went over how good Philip Broberg has looked at camp and why Spector penned an article detailing how he thought Broberg has passed Evan Bouchard on the Oilers depth chart.
If you want to listen to it, I’ll put up the audio at the very bottom of the page.
MS: a lot of fans who are fans of Evan Bouchard thought it was crazy to say that Broberg, after a week of camp, has passed him (Bouchard) by on the Oilers depth chart. I guess we should define depth chart, are we talking about going into these playoffs? Are we talking about the big list behind Ken Holland’s desk in his office? But I’ll tell you one thing, right now, at this camp, for these playoffs, Philip Broberg is closer to playing in an NHL game, in my opinion than is Evan Bouchard.
Evan Bouchard skated this morning and they put him in the ‘B’ group with Tyler Benson and Marody and Broberg is getting time on the ice with Klefbom. I’m not saying he’s taking Larsson’s job, that’s not what I’m saying, but he is in a position to be a player here in these playoffs. He’s still no. 8, let’s say the 8th guy but in my opinion, he’s passed Bouchard and he’s passed Lagesson.
BS: And you know his teammates know it. They’re watching what’s going on because what’s the old saying Spec? Who are always the first to know?
MS: The players know, right? When they were all hootin’ and hollerin’ the other day when he made that play, they were watching and they know. The players know, they know, and you can’t fool the players. They’re very impressed with what this kid’s doing.
BS: Mark, this might sound stupid to some of the listeners but some defensemen aren’t actually that fast in terms of when they skate forward. They’re so good skating backward and they’ve got great lateral movement and that sort of thing but they’re not always super explosive at skating forward. This guy EXPLODES on you and it’s the ranginess.
I think Scott Wheeler from the Athletic compared Broberg to John Klingberg, I don’t see that because Klingberg is really an elite offensive defenseman that can really walk the line. When I think of Broberg I think more of an upgraded Noah Hanifin. Like Hanifin can really skate too but hasn’t reached the offensive potential some people thought when he was a top-5 pick. Maybe there’s a chance that could happen with Broberg?
MS: That’s what we don’t know. Young players never ascend in a straight line, right Bob? It’s a bit of a mountainous graph as a player gets better, takes a step back, gets better. So what do we know about Broberg? Well, we saw him at the Hlinka two years ago, his stride stood right out. I mean of all the guys at that tournament, there’s one guy I left that tournament thinking, “Whoa man! Who’s number four for Sweden? Can number four ever skate?!” and you watch him out here and he just has a superior superior stride. He’s an NHL skater right now.
So for a defenseman, defensemen that can skate are defensemen that are going to play a long time and this kid can really skate. Where will the offense go, Bob? Well, we saw him blitz around Russell on that rush you talked about, uh, how’s his shot going to be? I haven’t really had a chance to see him unload much. We know Bouchard has an excellent shot from the right point. We’ll see all that stuff, the kid’s 19! You think of Leon Draisaitl when he was 19 and how he looks today. So I don’t know where he’s going to go, I just know that what I see so far has NHL defenseman written all over it.
BS: Well, it’s impacted how key people think based on the quotes. I mean we ran Dave Tippett’s stuff and he’s like, “We could play him at left defense, we could play him at right defense, we could put him at left-wing, we could put him at right-wing, we could put him at center.” it’s like just the way he was talking, that’s the head coach talking and he’s a guy that’s not overly effusive in his praise at times for young players, right? But that’s how good Broberg has been.
He’s a transporter and Bouchard is a transitioner and ya know what? There’s room for both long-term in the top-four and if these guys both, I’m not even saying these guys are going to be top-two, I’m just saying if you have four legitimate top-four defensemen, you can live with that. And the Oilers have got Ethan Bear, who’s looked very good, Mark. They got Klefbom and they’ve got Nurse. Those guys are still signed long-term. So you add these two guys into the mix, not including Larsson because they’re going to have to re-up him here after another year, but they’ve got the makings of a pretty good defense, Mark.
BLH’s Comments: A player is ready when a player is ready. Ask any person in professional hockey. he could be 18-years-old or he could be 27. In a league where skating is of the utmost importance, Broberg already shines. My concern is that if he’s going to be screaming down the wing and cutting to the middle, how long until he gets his bell rung or something else happens to him?
By 2020/21, the Oilers defense could look like this,
Klefbom/Larsson
Nurse/Bear
Broberg/Bouchard
Jones
Puck Racism
The sales are starting to trickle in with this design and I’m going to spam the hell out of it on my website and the BLH Hockey Instagram because I feel passionate about it and I feel like Hockey is Diversity deserves the proceeds that I’ll be donating to them.
So, please. If you’ve got an extra $20 lying around and you want to do a good thing for good people, click the pic down below and grab a t-shirt, a mask, a onesie, a tank top, or some stickers.
Hockey is Diversity is a German group whose aim is to draw attention to the ethnic diversity in society, which goes beyond the sporting borders in order to sensitize people interculturally. The diversity that has long been regarded as an enrichment in sport as a melting pot of people of different ethnicities, cultures, and religions should also be transferred to society.
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