This in from former NHL coach and GM Doug MacLean, speaking on the Real Kyper and Bourne show in Toronto, his assessment of Evan Bouchard’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game against the New York Islanders.
“Look, you know, you love Bouchard,” MacLean said, “You love the kid when he’s in the playoffs and is on top of his game and making big plays. But, look, I was with Nick Lidstrom for five years and (he was) a superstar defenceman. Honest to God, I don’t remember in the five years that I was an associate coach with him that he ever made any mistakes like that (Bouchard’s turnover to Matthew Barzal). Now, look, this is not a fair comparison, but when you’re going to be a Number #1 defenceman on a team, no different than(Denis) Povin with the Islanders and the big names guys that have been, you know, the Prongers. If you’re going to be the number one defenceman on a Stanley Cup contending team, you got to knock that stuff out of your game.”
MacLean continued: “I know he’s an offensive guy. I know that’s the number one part of his game. But if you’re going to be a winner, if the team is going to be a winner, he’s got to knock it. You heard it in (Oilers coach Kris) Knoblauch’s voice last night. You know, he’s not putting up with that.”
My take
1. MacLean makes a good point. Bouchard can’t make this kind of mistake so often. But there’s goods news on this front, which I’ll get to in a moment.
2. I’m glad that MacLean indicated that the Nicklas Lidstrom comparison was a bit much. Lidstrom was more than a No. 1 d-man. In fact you can make an argument that in terms of career value, Lidstrom was the best d-man in NHL history. He wasn’t as good as Bobby Orr or Paul Coffey at his peak, but he won six Norris Trophies as the NHL’s top d-man and finished second in voting four times. Eight times he was on the NHL’s first all star team. He was a brilliant player from the day he entered the NHL at age 21 to the day he left it at age 41, finishing fifth in Norris voting that final year. He finished in the Top 10 in Norris voting 17 times.
Bouchard has finished in the Top Ten once so far, in 2023-24, when he was voted fifth overall. He was 11th overall last season.
3. It was indeed a wretched game for Bouchard, and Maclean is correct that Bouchard would do well to make fewer such breakaway-inducing turnovers where he tries to deke out a forward even as he’s the last man back in the play.
4. The good news? Bouchard does indeed do better in cutting down on such mistakes in crunch time, in the playoffs.
We can see in the past two regular seasons, Bouchard has by far the most turnovers leading to Grade A shots against at even strength of any Oilers d-man.
When it comes to mistakes leading to Grade A shots, the Cult of Hockey has done video review and counted up all of them for the past 15 seasons. Some such mistakes are worse than others, in that they are more likely to lead to odd-man rushes and goals against, or dangerous looks down low and goals against. Such mistakes include turnovers, bad line changes, bad pinches, allowing breakaways, deflections on net and goalie screens.
In the last two regular seasons, Bouchard has made the highest rate of such mistakes of any regular Oilers d-man, with his number of turnovers and breakaways allowed particular areas of concerns.
Last year, 2024-25, he made 35 turnovers leading to Grade A shots per game at even strength in 82 games. The season before, 2023-24, it was 33 turnovers on Grade A shots against in 81 games.
This year in just four games he’s made five such turnovers in just four games.
reguarl
In the playoffs, however, Bouchard goes from one of the leakiest Oilers d-men when it comes to making such mistakes to one of the best.
in 2024 he made just seven turnovers in 25 playoffs games. In 2025 it was eight turnovers in 22 games.
Even more importantly, in both years he went from making one of the highest rates of mistakes on Grade A shots overall at even strength in the regular season, to one of the stingiest Oil d-men in this regard in the playoffs.
In 2024, his rate of such mistakes dropped from 1.48 in the regular season to just 1.13 in the playoffs. In 2025, it went from 1.72 to 1.50.
playoffs
Not only is Bouchard an offensive dynamo in the playoffs, he’s a solid defender against extremely difficult competition.
Maybe we can forgive him the odd rancid game in the regular season, no? Even if he’s not as good as Nicklas Lidstrom, and never will be.
At the Cult of Hockey
LEAVINS: Player grades in loss to Islanders
STAPLES: ‘Go pound sand’: Ex-NHL d-man stands up to critics of embattled Bouchard