This is the 2023-24 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Evan Bouchard
Edmonton Oilers Defense
One hundred and fourteen shots on goal from beyond forty feet, three goals, and 54 slap shots.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | EDM | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10.0 | 12:21 |
| 2020-21 | EDM | 14 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 5.3 | 14:50 |
| 2021-22 | EDM | 81 | 12 | 31 | 43 | +10 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 205 | 5.9 | 19:48 |
| 2022-23 | EDM | 82 | 8 | 32 | 40 | +6 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 156 | 5.1 | 18:31 |
| 2023-24 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 184 | 23 | 66 | 89 | +9 | 60 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 409 | 5.6 | 18:34 |
This Season So Far
The 2023-24 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
8 goals and 32 assists in all 82 games, plus-6, 18:31 a night, 156 shots.
57.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,266 minutes, the 94th percentile — the best figure on the club — with his ice at 65-57 against an expectation of 64.27-47.32.
Read the second half of that. His ice conceded ten goals more than the chances predicted, on a club whose goaltending graded minus-4.3. The offensive end landed exactly where it should. The defensive end did not, and that gap is the one thing in this report that argues against the possession share.
Four seasons, 184 games, 89 points.
The Finesse Game
156 shots at a median of 52 feet, 77 per cent from beyond forty and 8 per cent from inside twenty.
From beyond forty feet: 114 shots on goal, three goals, 2.63 per cent — below the 3.17 per cent league rate for a defenceman. Inside forty: 36 shots, five goals, 13.89 per cent.
54 of his attempts were slap shots, the second-highest count across these five clubs behind Gostisbehere’s 60, and the registered shot speed is 96.9 mph at the 87th percentile.
The 32 assists are the game. He runs a power play that generated the most expected goals in the league, and the point shot is the threat that makes the seam pass available rather than a scoring play in its own right — which is the most charitable and probably the correct reading of 114 shots and three goals.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 192, and light. 21.9 mph at the 33rd percentile, 0.8 bursts a game at the 41st, 2.63 miles a game at the 56th — below average for speed, ordinary for distance.
52.6 per cent of his five-on-five shifts started in the attacking zone, the 61st percentile. He is used in the offensive zone as much as any defenceman in the league, which is the context the 94th-percentile possession share needs.
28 penalty minutes in 82 games. He is not physical, does not clear the net front, and at 192 pounds the defensive end is where the ten goals came from.
The Intangibles
Tenth overall in 2018 out of London, three years of being sent back and forth, and two full seasons at 22 and 23 producing 83 points.
He is the power-play quarterback on the best power play in hockey and the possession numbers say the even-strength minutes work too. The ten goals above expectation at the defensive end say something else, and one season is not enough to know which is the player.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- durable· was available
82 of 82 games
Season to season, this measure repeats weakly (0.32) · 53% keep it
- drives-play· the shot clock turns his way while he is out there
57.6% of the expected goals at five-on-five with him on, 51.6% for his club in the minutes he sat: +6.0, 95th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats moderately (0.39) · 29% keep it
“the point shot is the threat that makes the seam pass available rather than a scoring play in its own right”
“He is not physical, does not clear the net front, and at 192 pounds the defensive end is where the ten goals came from.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2022-23 · 1,266 minutes
- Expected goals
- 57.6%
- 95th pct
- Shot attempts
- 56.9%
- 95th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 65 for, 57 against. Expected: 64.3 and 47.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 57 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 638 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 63 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2022-23 · 82 games
- Top speed
- 21.9 mph
- 64th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.77 a game
- Distance
- 2.63 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 96.9 mph
- 83rd pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.5
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.0
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2022-23 · 1266 minutes at five-on-five
- Brett Kulak17%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2022-23
- The club
- EDM took 53.5% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 57.6% — 4.1 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,266 minutes at five-on-five — 88th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connor McDavid | 59.5% | 56.3% | 56.2% |
| Zach Hyman | 54.8% | 59.2% | 55.6% |
| Leon Draisaitl | 56.7% | 58.0% | 51.3% |
59.5% together, 56.3% for him apart and 56.2% for McDavid apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
212 unblocked shots in 2022-23, 8 of them goals. His median goal came from 34 feet. 8% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 77% from beyond forty.