This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Evan Bouchard
Edmonton Oilers Defense
67 points and a 58.5 per cent chance share, and 32 goals of finishing that never arrived.
| 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 | EDM | 81 | 18 | 64 | 82 | +34 | 32 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 220 | 8.2 | 23:00 |
| 2024-25 | EDM | 82 | 14 | 53 | 67 | +14 | 32 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 235 | 6.0 | 23:28 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 347 | 55 | 183 | 238 | +57 | 124 | 17 | 0 | 12 | 864 | 6.4 | 20:46 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 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
14 goals and 53 assists in 82 games for 67 points, plus-14, on 23:28 a night and 235 shots.
58.5 per cent at five-on-five, the 98th percentile, over 1,468 minutes. His on-ice goals were 45-56 against an expected 76.8-54.6 — 32 goals that should have been scored and were not. It is the second-largest such gap in this edition.
The Finesse Game
The shot is the best from the point in the league. It is heavy, it is released quickly from a set position, and 235 attempts is the volume of a man who is the primary offensive option on a power play containing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
The passing is the equal skill and the more valuable one — 53 assists comes from a stretch pass that turns a defensive-zone retrieval into a rush, which is the single most distinctive thing this club does. He is a genuinely elite offensive defenceman.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 192, and light for the height. He does not clear a crease, does not win a battle below the goal line by force, and defends with stick and position.
32 penalty minutes over 82 games. The durability has been excellent — three consecutive full seasons at 23 minutes a night.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, two Cup finals, and a reputation among casual observers that is far worse than the record — the defensive lapses are memorable and the 98th-percentile chance share is not.
At 25 on a large new contract, the honest reading is that he is one of the five most productive defencemen in the league and genuinely below average at defending the rush. Both are true and the first is worth more.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,468 minutes
- Expected goals
- 58.5%
- 98th pct
- Shot attempts
- 59.1%
- 98th 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: 45 for, 56 against. Expected: 76.8 and 54.6.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 22 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 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 77 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.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1468 minutes at five-on-five
- Brett Kulak12%
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, 2024-25
- The club
- EDM took 54.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 58.5% — 4.2 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,468 minutes at five-on-five — 98th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mattias Ekholm | 59.0% | 57.2% | 59.5% |
| Connor McDavid | 61.1% | 54.8% | 56.6% |
| Zach Hyman | 61.6% | 55.6% | 58.2% |
59.0% together, 57.2% for him apart and 59.5% for Ekholm apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
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
319 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 14 of them goals. His median goal came from 38 feet. 6% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 72% from beyond forty.