Teams loaded with career minor leaguers are the ones that tend to win in the AHL. That's what constitutes depth at that level.
Boucher is not going to be 'given' anything. He's going to have to earn icetime by taking it away from the 7 or 8 guys he'll be competing with to get bottom-6 minutes. Is he better than Jamieson Rees, Wyatt Bongiovanni, Oskar Pettersson, Cole Reinhardt, Keean Washkurak, Hayden Hodgson, and Jake Chiasson? Not from what I've seen.
You can forget about his draft status; it just doesn't matter anymore. The current regime running things in Ottawa have no loyalty to this guy and no reason to prioritize his development over anybody else.
It's not even like he has high upside. What's his best-case scenario development outcome? That he becomes Paul Cotter or something?
This is precisely it.
Ottawa has an absolutely terrible, terrible prospect pool, and Boucher probably isn’t in the top 15 in their system.
- He can’t stay healthy
- When he’s healthy he hasn’t looked good in any league thus far
- His ceiling is non-existent, with everything going right they may get a journeyman 4th liner type.
- Staios, Bowman and Poulin had nothing to do with selecting him. The whole management team, along with the head scout, is gone. There is no loyalty or favouritism towards any of the prospects. The better ones will get attention.
You would think this guy has been successful everywhere he’s played the way you hear about him from some, whereas he’s been bad and injured everywhere. NCAA, OHL, and AHL. He’s a nothing prospect at this point in time, Sens will be extremely happy if he can muck out a journeyman career on the 4th.