Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | The Oilers Biggest Roster Need Is?

[TheNumber4]

One thing that gives me confidence with Bouchard is that hes at least been lights out in the playoffs. I mean he made QHughes the “best dman in the league” look like a chump.

Cleaning up some his wtf brain lapses would be nice though lol

Outplayed Heiskanen too.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

I guess Hedman isn't elite either.

? Hedman won the Norris in 2017-18

 

[Davo Ikinzom]

? Hedman won the Norris in 2017-18

And got less votes than Bouch last year. Or is he done now? Keep spinning.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

I think it's interesting to dig into the deployment and usage context. Ekholm plays PK and is trusted in critical defending game situations. Bouchard is a lethal weapon on offense and key to driving PP success after McDavid. This is reflected in zone start information which reinforces each player's strengths.

Bouchard's splits for 2024-25:
73.9% o-zone
26.1% d-zone

Ekholm zone starts
58.6% o-zone
41.4% d-zone.

Bouchard
525.7 TOI
441.6 EV
77.7 PP
6.4 PK
413.6 5 on 5 Close, Tied Zone Starts for this situational play: 69% OZ 31% DZ

Ekholm
508.6 TOI
432.5 EV
26.8 PP
49.3 PK
409.7 5 on 5 Close, Tied Zone Starts for this situational play: 68.3% OZ 31.7 DZ%

2023-24 Zone Starts
Bouchard
68.8% o-zone
31.2% d-zone

Ekholm
55.2% o-zone
44.8% d-zone

Regarding deployment, I think Knoblauch has managed the blueline massive changeover really well moving up Kulak to 2RD with a +3 minute toi bump along with trialing Nurse at 2RD. They have together stabilized middle pair while better growing Emberson at 3RD and carefully managing the #7/8 rotational journeymen to 13/13:30 toi.

One interesting note is Bouchard's deployment zone starts are highest tilted of his career at 73.9 offensive and 26.1% defensive. The Oilers top line continue to be elite tilting o-zone ice-time, not sure where the PP #'s are this year compared to last, but it does seem like some deployment considerations to manage Bouch's own zone time on ice. This is an elite developing defenseman who makes sense to tilt to his strength but also maybe to managed also the growth areas within his own team's defending as well.

 

[K1984]

Right, so you want doctoral theses on advanced mathematics and statistics presented while you sit there and throw out "BOUCHARD SHIT" like a sub-average chimpanzee? Wonderful. I'll get right on that.

Bouchard makes mistakes, absolutely. He also makes dozens of excellent plays every game. This isn't as difficult to understand as you're determined to make it look.

This is literally what I've been saying repetitively, but you choose to ignore it for whatever reason (likely something to do with general personal inadequacy) so you can hang your hat on your personal feeling that you're brilliant and everyone else is too dumb to see the light.

Bouchard so far this year, is playing like shit by his standards. So was McDavid for the first 10ish games. So has RNH, so have a half dozen other players on this team. Does that mean they're shitty players? No. It means that for whatever reason, they are playing shitty relative to their personal standards that they have established for themselves. If you haven't yet noticed, this is a bit of a theme among a bunch of key players in Edmonton early in seasons. Hold on, the next statement may be too much for you to handle, but it is possible that these momentary faults in their game(s) don't always adequately reflect in analytics *gasp*.

It really isn't complicated, but don't let me get in the way of you self-fellating because you like analytics.

 

[guymez]

I think it's interesting to dig into the deployment and usage context. Ekholm plays PK and is trusted in critical defending game situations. Bouchard is a lethal weapon on offense and key to driving PP success after McDavid. This is reflected in zone start information which reinforces each player's strengths.

Bouchard's splits for 2024-25:
73.9% o-zone
26.1% d-zone

Ekholm zone starts
58.6% o-zone
41.4% d-zone.

Bouchard
525.7 TOI
441.6 EV
77.7 PP
6.4 PK
413.6 5 on 5 Close, Tied Zone Starts for this situational play: 69% OZ 31% DZ

Ekholm
508.6 TOI
432.5 EV
26.8 PP
49.3 PK
409.7 5 on 5 Close, Tied Zone Starts for this situational play: 68.3% OZ 31.7 DZ%

2023-24 Zone Starts
Bouchard
68.8% o-zone
31.2% d-zone

Ekholm
55.2% o-zone
44.8% d-zone

Regarding deployment, I think Knoblauch has managed the blueline massive changeover really well moving up Kulak to 2RD with a +3 minute toi bump along with trialing Nurse at 2RD. They have together stabilized middle pair while better growing Emberson at 3RD and carefully managing the #7/8 rotational journeymen to 13/13:30 toi.

One interesting note is Bouchard's deployment zone starts are highest tilted of his career at 73.9 offensive and 26.1% defensive. The Oilers top line continue to be elite tilting o-zone ice-time, not sure where the PP #'s are this year compared to last, but it does seem like some deployment considerations to manage Bouch's own zone time on ice. This is an elite developing defenseman who makes sense to tilt to his strength but also maybe to managed also the growth areas within his own team's defending as well.

I would suggest that Bouchard is an elite offensive dman already but his defence is still very much a work in progress.
The thing about this season is that Boucards offensive numbers are not elite so that tends to underscore his deficiencies in the D zone.
This is not a good season for Bouchard despite the coach giving him prime (gravy) offensive zone starts.

 

[guymez]

This is literally what I've been saying repetitively, but you choose to ignore it for whatever reason (likely something to do with general personal inadequacy) so you can hang your hat on your personal feeling that you're brilliant and everyone else is too dumb to see the light.

Bouchard so far this year, is playing like shit by his standards. So was McDavid for the first 10ish games. So has RNH, so have a half dozen other players on this team. Does that mean they're shitty players? No. It means that for whatever reason, they are playing shitty relative to their personal standards that they have established for themselves. If you haven't yet noticed, this is a but of a theme among a bunch of key players in Edmonton early in seasons. Hold on, the next statement may be too much for you to handle, but it is possible that these momentary faults in their game(s) don't always adequately reflect in analytics *gasp*.

It really isn't complicated, but don't let me get in the way of you self-fellating because you like analytics.

As someone who appreciates analytics its not that difficult to see where they arent providing definitive information on a player.
So I completely agree with you here... analytics are definitely useful BUT they are not definitive on their own.

 

[TheNumber4]

You guys are getting a bit screwy with no hockey on the schedule.

Oh well.

 

[Slats432]

That's fair, but if he can push up on the roster, that's better and it's not JUST about this year, young cheap guys are going to be huge for this team, and Jiricek is much closer to the NHL then anyone else in the systme.

I would personally trade for him as well, if I wasn't clear.

You guys are getting a bit screwy with no hockey on the schedule.

Oh well.

 

[McDoused]

My favorite Bouchard stat sample, the 2024 NHL Playoffs:
View attachment 936062

The Oilers were one game away from winning the Stanley Cup and when #2 was on the bench they were flat out bad. McDavid or otherwise.

This is fantastic. Thank you.

Another stat no one is currently talking about is how good the Nurse-Kulak Pairing has been.

We may not even need a RHD if they can keep this up albeit they have only played 87 minutes together. If they do get another RHD, Kulak-Emberson has been a solid pairing that tends to push play in the positive direction.

 

[TheNumber4]

Wonder if Bowman is still working the Jiricek trade. Did Bob even mention Jiricek last night?

 

[K1984]

This is fantastic. Thank you.

Another stat no one is currently talking about is how good the Nurse-Kulak Pairing has been.

View attachment 936106

We may not even need a RHD if they can keep this up albeit they have only played 87 minutes together. If they do get another RHD, Kulak-Emberson has been a solid pairing that tends to push play in the positive direction.

The thing that kills me about the Nurse-Kulak pairing is the fact that they were dubiously split up after being lights out in the Stars series because Kulak "wasn't comfortable" on his off side despite the pair killing it. They've basically played well every single time they've been paired up.

It then took the Nurse-Ceci pair about 10 mins to blow up in Game 1 of the Final. This is one of those things where I wonder if Kulak had simply been told to suck it up that we wouldn't have won the cup on this basis alone.

 

[McDNicks17]

Why is Columbus trading Jiricek?

I know nothing about the guy except he was a high first rounder.

I think it's a combination of them drafting a guy who needed a huge improvement in skating that hasn't happened and him/his agent publicly calling for ice time when he clearly isn't ready.

They'd be smart to sell high right now, IMO.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Wonder if Bowman is still working the Jiricek trade. Did Bob even mention Jiricek last night?

Yeah. But he mentioned Fowler and Gibson more

 

[McDoused]

I think it's a combination of them drafting a guy who needed a huge improvement in skating that hasn't happened and him/his agent publicly calling for ice time when he clearly isn't ready.

They'd be smart to sell high right now, IMO.

Agreed. I don't get the hype for a guy who can't crack the 3rd paid in Columbus. At this point he's a project and someone that non-playoff teams should be looking at down the road, not a team trying to win the cup.

If you grab Jiricek you have to be confident that its a situation where he needs a change of scenery and expect Coffey to unlock the most in him.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

This is literally what I've been saying repetitively, but you choose to ignore it for whatever reason (likely something to do with general personal inadequacy) so you can hang your hat on your personal feeling that you're brilliant and everyone else is too dumb to see the light.

Bouchard so far this year, is playing like shit by his standards. So was McDavid for the first 10ish games. So has RNH, so have a half dozen other players on this team. Does that mean they're shitty players? No. It means that for whatever reason, they are playing shitty relative to their personal standards that they have established for themselves. If you haven't yet noticed, this is a bit of a theme among a bunch of key players in Edmonton early in seasons. Hold on, the next statement may be too much for you to handle, but it is possible that these momentary faults in their game(s) don't always adequately reflect in analytics *gasp*.

It really isn't complicated, but don't let me get in the way of you self-fellating because you like analytics.

Bold 1: Retroactively, after calling the player shit, but that's okay, your frenzied backpedalling is obvious to everyone.

Bold 2: more backpedalling after standing firm on your egregiously idiotic original point

Bold 3: I'll accept the view of the analytics community much more readily than some random dipshit whose player analysis is limited to "shit" and "not shit". Gotta keep things simple when you're simple, I suppose.

Also don't bother responding, you've long earned a spot on my ignore list. You're about as illuminating as the bottom of a well.

 

[K1984]

Bold 1: Retroactively, after calling the player shit, but that's okay, your frenzied backpedalling is obvious to everyone.

Bold 2: more backpedalling after standing firm on your egregiously idiotic original point

Bold 3: I'll accept the view of the analytics community much more readily than some random dipshit whose player analysis is limited to "shit" and "not shit". Gotta keep things simple when you're simple, I suppose.

Also don't bother responding, you've long earned a spot on my ignore list. You're about as illuminating as the bottom of a well.

Oh no!!!!! What will I do without a child reading my posts!!!!!

 

[ChaoticOrange]

This is fantastic. Thank you.

Another stat no one is currently talking about is how good the Nurse-Kulak Pairing has been.

View attachment 936106

We may not even need a RHD if they can keep this up albeit they have only played 87 minutes together. If they do get another RHD, Kulak-Emberson has been a solid pairing that tends to push play in the positive direction.

Not saying you specifically, but I do think it's funny that people are anointing Nurse as "fixed" based on a 10 game sample with Kulak but Bouchard has 120 regular season and 50 playoff games of excellence but they see one highlight on SportsCentre and he's ass.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

Fowler and Gibson? Both trending down? I'm so worried some numbers guy is going to show up and hang me from the bridge....or call me a ding dong or a goober or a sup par something.

 

[JustNapalmIt]

Not saying you specifically, but I do think it's funny that people are anointing Nurse as "fixed" based on a 10 game sample with Kulak but Bouchard has 120 regular season and 50 playoff games of excellence but they see one highlight on SportsCentre and he's ass.

Bouchard has played plenty of shit games in his 120 regular season and 50 playoff games.
Like lots.

 

[OilerTitanFan]

I wonder how much things would be different if at all had Rodrigue not totally soiled the sheets in pre-season in Seattle.

I don't have any expectation that he would come in and perform at a top tier level, but I would definitely be interested to see if he could outperform Pickard. Only challenge is how to move the roster around to make it happen.



No, no, that list is law. Anyone that says otherwise or considers context is a "goober."

Only smart people blindly look at an analytics chart and treat it as law, apparently.

Management need to be bold and put Rodrigue in for a few games. I wonder how Binnington and Dustin Wolf actually earned a starting job. Flames had Vladar, prior to that Markstrom. Then they cleaned house and somehow Wolf had a horseshoe up his ass. The flames fans must be stoked to have the goalie of the future come out of nowhere while he continue our musical chairs which all began after the departure of Roloson. We had Dubnyk and fans ran him out.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Bouchard has played plenty of shit games in his 120 regular season and 50 playoff games.
Like lots.

He's played lots, LOTS more excellent ones.

Since the start of last year no player in the NHL has been on the ice for more high danger chances for. 89 players - 63 of them defencemen - have been on the ice for more high danger chances against.

 

[McDNicks17]

To add a visual to it...here's Josh Brown(dark) vs. Jiricek(grey) last season.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Bouchard has played plenty of shit games in his 120 regular season and 50 playoff games.
Like lots.

He also had one of the greatest playoff runs in history so

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

To add a visual to it...here's Josh Brown(dark) vs. Jiricek(grey) last season.

View attachment 936111

You're serious with this?