"Certainly better than his actual on ice contribution, would be the general consensus."
The general consensus is cause when Bouch makes a boo-boo that's what the non-Oiler fans see posted on Hfboards or Twitter or wherever. When he makes multiple nifty high IQ passes per game, none of that gets posted. But Oilers fans see it and Oilers fans know how high end his vision and skillset is. I honestly don't think he deserved to be on Team Canada, cause Bouch started the year rough, along with the whole team who was dealing with an extreme Cup hangover. But we will see if Armstrong is right, alot of his picks seem biased and based on players he's had on his cup winning teams from before that are now past their prime.
That Jfresh chart is 2022 vs 2024 though. Keep in mind also Jfresh cards capture a 3 year rolling average, so considering how Elite Josi was back then for a long stretch that would make sense to have him so high, and he deserved it. No doubt Josi was the elite of the elite 2 years ago (and the 3 years prior). I think Bouch has passed him in overall impact currently though. A more updated comparison would be hockeystatcards (sources Dom's data) and has Bouch at a +6.1 net impact vs. Josi's +0.5. Now I'm willing to give Josi the benefit of the doubt for alot of that rating considering the Predators poor season this year, but that's a sizeable gap right there. Then I think back to games I've actually watched recently and I was left thinking... where's my Josi impact I used to love seeing?
That site does use Game Impact scores, which I've personally tried to verify. I watch games by eye and iso-watch ONE player through it's entirely. Then I give him a verbal score. Like if I say a player had a decent game, most often then not it's slightly positive of center. If I think a player had a great game most often then not it's way in the positive. But personally I think the game impacts ratings are fine for a ONE game sample.
That said the overall player ratings is what I'm talking about not the game impact score averages. Which are based on accumulated game impacts along with other metrics raked in. So this is the more relevant list than the game impact score one where you saw Hronek rated too high (I agree by the way). Right now Makar is leading Hughes and Werenski is 3rd. I would say that is very accurate considering the general chatter and what we know of those players. Makar and Hughes are who they are... and Werenski is having a Norris quality season. And Bouchard is currently 6th behind Hedman and Carlson who are having resurgent seasons.
If you are Nucks fan I'm actually surprised you'd rate Bouch so low. Now in the regular season it's quite obvious that Hughes drives the play for his team at a level higher than Bouch. But in that head to head series, Hughes was not at his best and Bouch made more impacts for his team. His impacts however are not and will never be as flashy as Hughes, but that doesn't mean they can't be as effective. Like I said earlier, his impacts are more one touch and it's blink and you miss it. It's see a pass that no one see's. It's slight jukes to open up a play instead of Hughes going around the world in the O-zone to see a play. So i understand the disconnect in your eye test for that reason.
