It feels like only yesterday when Evan Bouchard was playing in the NHL and not looking one bit out of place. He played his seven games, netting a goal and racking up a minus-five +/- total. But reality checked in this past week when the Nation’s dad was sent back down to the London Knights just 13 days after his 19th birthday. Baggedmilk wrote about all about that here. While we were sad to see him go, we do feel better knowing that Evan Bouchard was joining one of the powerhouses of the OHL.

The 10-4-2 Knights welcomed Bouchard back with open arms this past weekend, and he joined a star-studded lineup with the likes of Alex Formenton and Adam Boqvist as London looks to make a run for a Memorial Cup. Forced to sit out Saturday’s game due to a quick turnaround time, our large adult son took the ice against the Kitchener Rangers on Sunday and did not take long to show just how good he really is.

From where I sit, the time spent in the NHL allowed the young Bouchard to appreciate just how truly fast that game is versus what he went back to in Junior. On the play that led to his first goal, Bouchard makes two guys look pedestrian there to start and then follows the play right up the middle of the ice and has his stick in the perfect spot for the nice and easy put away.

This goal and his foreseeable domination of the OHL for the rest of the year will be something to watch and we will be the place to watch. You can always follow along with him and all our players in the system across the hockey world over on my Prospect Update, posted every Sunday here at ON: