No one has benefited more from the arrival of Mattias Ekholm than Evan Bouchard.
Before Ekholm joined the Edmonton Oilers at the NHL trade deadline, Bouchard was a third-pairing defenceman who had not reached his potential. Over the past couple of months, however, Bouchard has looked every bit the part of the top-10 draft pick he was in 2018.
“When I got here, you could tell right away he’s just scratching the surface of his potential and what he can be,” Ekholm told reporters Monday. “I think he’s having a really big come-out party here right now where he’s playing tremendous every night. The most impressive thing I find with his game is that offensively, he has everything you need, but it’s not at a cost of the defensive side.”
Previously, the Oilers found success by pairing Bouchard with Duncan Keith, who, like Ekholm, was a steadying force on the back end. Bouchard, as Ekholm described him, has never been a “defensive monster” who overwhelms opponents physically, instead relying more on his positioning to make defensive plays. He led all Oilers defencemen with 28 blocked passes at 5-on-5 in six first-round games against the Los Angeles Kings, including 15 in the defensive zone.
The quality of competition that Bouchard has faced since partnering with Ekholm has increased significantly. They spent the majority of the Kings series shadowing Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson, holding them without a 5-on-5 goal. The Oilers outscored the Kings 4-3 when Ekholm and Bouchard were on the ice.
When including the regular season, the Oilers have a 31-11 on-ice goal differential at 5-on-5 when Ekholm and Bouchard are on the ice. It helps, of course, that Ekholm and Bouchard have spent a considerable amount of time with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The combination of those four players and Evander Kane were together for 30:19 as a unit at even strength against the Kings, controlling 66.5 per cent of expected goals.
Bouchard has made his biggest impact on the power play, where he replaced Tyson Barrie on the top unit after the Oilers sent Barrie to the Nashville Predators in the Ekholm trade. Bouchard had eight power-play points (two goals and six assists) in the Oilers’ first-round win, factoring on all but one of Edmonton’s power-play goals over six games. Those eight points tied the NHL record for the most by a defenceman in a single series.
“He’s been excellent for us,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft told reporters earlier this week. “I think that pairing with him and Ekholm together moved the puck very well. They defended well. They helped us generate offence, and to see the steps that he’s taking as a power-play quarterback, I think that’s also a positive sign for him personally and for us as a group.”
