Throughout his first seven years in the NHL, Evan Bouchard has earned himself a moniker that no blueliner wants: a bad defender.

It’s followed him in and out of each season — justified or not — and as the years go by, notices of his improvement have fallen on deaf ears. And while this may come as a surprise to some, those changes happened years ago.

In fact, since the 2022-23 season, his second full season in the NHL, Bouchard has been a positive contributor defensively, according to HockeyViz. When Bouchard has been on the ice at five-on-five, the Oilers’ expected goals against rate of 2.22 per hour sits at a staggering 15 per cent rate higher than league average, all the while generating 3.33 expected goals for per hour, a 28 per cent rate greater than league average, according to HockeyViz. It’s no small sample size, either, as he’s played 5,683 minutes in such a situation.

A massive amount of that, of course, has been with Mattias Ekholm, with whom he’s played 3,676 of those minutes, roughly 65 per cent of his total ice time. Together, they’ve been tremendous, generating 30 per cent more offence than league average and 16 per cent better defence than league average, but when Bouchard hasn’t played with Ekholm, he’s just as good. Offensively, it’s an expected goals for rate of 3.22, 24 per cent above league average, and defence at a 2.29 expected goals against per hour rate, 12 per cent above league average.

In all of Bouchard’s 5v5 minutes since 2022-23, his raw goals for to goals against ratio sits at a nice plus-69, for a 56.1 per cent goal share.

Those are a lot of numbers, I get it, but it’s important to lay the groundwork of what’s actually happening on the ice beyond what your eyes tell you. The problem with Evan Bouchard, however, is that the eyes of many get caught up with the glaring mistakes. And make no mistake, there are some headscratchers out there. What’s been frustrating to see is the giveaway numbers climbling, and the takeaway numbers declining.

According to Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five per hour, Bouchard had 3.21 giveaways and 2.67 takeaways in 2022-23. In 2023-24, it was 2.76 giveaways, and 1.98 takeaways. In 2024-25, 4.37 giveaways and 1.85 takeaways. Last year? A dismal 3.89 giveaways and 0.9 takeaways.

Nobody is denying that area of his game needs to be cleaned up, and it will be near the top of D.J. Smith’s priority list as he sinks his teeth into the Oilers’ defencemen. All of this is to say that things like giveaways and takeaways are largely subjective stats, tracked by eye in each NHL arena. What’s a giveaway or takeaway in one rink may not be the same in the next.

The raw numbers, however, are objective: when Evan Bouchard is on the ice, no matter whom with, good things are going to happen, but in order for Bouchard to continue his ascent, and gain more leaguewide recognition in the Norris Trophy race, the blunders need to decrease.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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