He’s raw but talented, so he may have significant development ahead of him.
This is exactly what's happened.
I think it's very clear that Boucher has improved the most from U17 year to U18 year of all of the NTDP players. He's no longer a raw player with good tools. He's now a consistent force.
I don't want to compare him to Tom Wilson because there are differences, but there's Tom Wilson production upside in his game.
Boucher is really big, he's already like 6'1 200+, incredibly strong and holds off all players at the junior level because he's stronger than them. He's a very good skater for a player his size with straight away speed but also the ability to make cuts and move side to side. He dangles really well also. He makes some creative passes. In fact, his best passes are his creative passes. His lack of ability to make effective simple passes is probably the biggest issue with his offensive skills. He also has a good shot. He can beat goalies clean.
Physically, he's a real danger to the players on the other team. Every shift he'll look to hit someone. Sometimes, he'll hit 3-4 players on a shift. Sometimes, he'll knock a player into the next county. But his hits are often illegal, they are poorly timed, they are unneeded, and they take him out of position defensively. His positioning defensively is often poor, and he's a cherry picker. He's lazy defensively, and doesn't want to contribute without the puck if it's not hitting a player.
I think he's going to be a winger because he's not good defensively, he's not much of a playmaker, and he takes himself out of position a lot. But he does take some face-offs and occasionally will still line up for shifts as a center.
Like most power forwards, his decision making isn't very good. With the puck, I wouldn't say his decision making is that bad. It's not good, but it's not that bad. His really bad decision-making is in the hits he makes. He puts his team short-handed a lot. He's going to get suspended a lot, if he doesn't learn to hit legally.
I still think he's a huge riser for this draft. He's a consistent force every shift and the other team knows where he is every shift. All teams are going to want a player like this. Considering he's a big riser, pegging a range is difficult. I would say late first is around where he should go for now.