Prospect Info: Tyler Boucher (RW/LW) - Don`t sleep on Tyler Boucher

[SweSensFan]

Stylistically, Grieg is kind of like Peter Forsberg. Even in his best case scenario though, he's not going to be half of what Forsberg was.

Similarly, Boucher is kind of like Wilson. He's never going to be a Wilson, nobody in their right mind should have ever thought he was going to be anywhere as good or effective as him.

Anyone looking for anything positive from the draft was hoping for, like Wilson, a good skater, heavy body, with a decent shot, and someone who will relentlessly run you over. But, unlike Wilson, a second line winger (if absolutely everything goes right) or more realistically, a third line winger.

I think rn we should be happy if he becomes a solid and better than average 4th line winger!

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I'm pumped for when he comes back the middle of next season some time.

 

[BrawlFan]

Injuries happen to every player. Let’s see how long he’s out. Head injuries are unpredictable

 

[Icelevel]

Injuries happen to every player. Let’s see how long he’s out. Head injuries are unpredictable

Oh is it a head injury?

 

[BrawlFan]

Oh is it a head injury?

Apparently he got hit pretty good. Assumed it’s a head.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Apparently he got hit pretty good. Assumed it’s a head.

Really wasn’t that big of a collision

 

[bert]

I'm always accused of celebrating him not panning out. It couldn't be farther from the truth. I hope every Sens prospect turns into an all-star. What bothers me about the selection is how blatantly obvious of a bad selection it was from the beginning, yet the arrogant management and scouting staff talked down on everyone who was sceptical. Combine that with the condescending fanboys telling the sceptics about his "unique toolkit" and I'm beginning to feel quite vindicated.

So you're essentially celebrating his failure. So strange. I didn't like the pick at the time either but I am still cheering for him to make it. Why are you taking it so personal?

Too bad he's hurt again, the guy can't catch a break.

 

[Alf Silfversson]

Forget sleeping on this kid. We all need to go into an induced coma and come out in a few years. Maybe he'll be a serviceable player by then. Hopefully he's still playing by then and with our organization, who have been very supportive of him through thick and thin. Even the dingbats who drafted him did well by him. Need to check back in around 2026 to see if he is a player who can chip in on the 4th line (or better).

 

[OD99]

Apparently he got hit pretty good. Assumed it’s a head.

Looked like shoulder to me, but what do I know.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Looked like shoulder to me, but what do I know.

Same... he got up immediately, never went to his head and his one arm looked like it was just hanging. Could have been the hit , could have been when he hit the ice. He has injured a shoulder a couple of times previously.

 

[Xspyrit]

Well, thankfully I didn't listen to this advice or I wouldn't have slept in almost 2 years

 

[Senovision]

What the hell were they thinking when they picked Tyler Boucher 10th overall? Makes no sense.

 

[Senscore]

Why are there so many non-Sens fan weirdos on this board obsessed with this very unremarkable player?

 

[Maraz]

Just noticed he has very similar career path to J.T. Miller so far, except injuries obviously. If only he could get on full season off development without setbacks.

 

[BondraTime]

Just noticed he has very similar career path to J.T. Miller so far, except injuries obviously. If only he could get on full season off development without setbacks.

Their career paths are not similar whatsoever.

At the same age Miller already had 10 points in 50 NHL games and 70 points in 80 AHL games.

 

[NyQuil]

What the hell were they thinking when they picked Tyler Boucher 10th overall? Makes no sense.

The mitigating circumstance if I recall correctly was the lack of scouting due to COVID.

Not an excuse, given how much of a reach he was, but an explanation.

Not a lot of home runs in general that year, no?

 

[dumbdick]

The mitigating circumstance if I recall correctly was the lack of scouting due to COVID.

Not an excuse, given how much of a reach he was, but an explanation.

Not a lot of home runs in general that year, no?

It does look like a pretty bad draft so far.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

The mitigating circumstance if I recall correctly was the lack of scouting due to COVID.

Not an excuse, given how much of a reach he was, but an explanation.

Not a lot of home runs in general that year, no?

Boucher has good tools and has demonstrated flashes of high end skill. One of the problems is that there is a big gap between his skill set and his production, a second problem is a consistency issue as the flashes of high end skill are not frequent enough.

One of the reasons why he was drafted so high is the premium the Sens placed on his physicality. Another plausible explanation is that the Sens may have speculated that it was simply an experiential gap that was creating the disparity between his skill set and his production and his consistency issues. The Sens likely underestimated how difficult of a development task it was going to be to breach the gap between his flashes of skill and production.

It is interesting because Sens development coach, Shean Donovan was asked about Boucher on TSN1200 at the start of the season and he seemed quite optimistic about what Boucher could become. He said something along the lines that Boucher is the kind of player that will break into the NHL as a 4th liner and then the skies the limit for what he could become. Interestingly enough he seemed more optimistic about the upside of Boucher than Ostapchuk who he said could become a Nick Paul kind of player for the Sens. Ostapchuk has certainly demonstrated more clear signs of development than Boucher has since being drafted so it is interesting that Donovan would say such a thing.

My guess is that Boucher demonstrates quite a bit of skill in drills and various types of training sessions. That this leads to an optimistic view of what he could become. But at the same time it creates the perplexing question of why there is an inconsistency in those skills and why is it not leading to more clear improvements in production.

Based on McKenzie's rankings at the time of the 2021 draft, Boucher was expected to go somewhere from the tail end of the first round to mid second round. It is a more reasonable spot for a prospect who demonstrates flashes of ability but needs a lot of development.

Boucher has a lot more skill than people on here give him credit for. Maybe his production ends up surprising people down the line and he ends up being a high quality middle six forward. The issue with that is that if it happens, it might end up being over a time frame that is similar to that of a late draft pick or undrafted player. There are plenty of players that surprise people as to what they become in their mid to late 20's.

It seems like for high draft picks though, that it is less of a concern of what they could eventually become and more of a concern about what age they reach that potential by and how certain an organization is that the prospect in question that will reach that potential by that age. That might be heavily influenced by managing contracts. It is certainly preferable to have a player produce like a top six forward while they are cost controlled on their ELC.

A prospect becomes waiver eligible relatively quickly after their ELC ends. Shortly after that the player in question gets arbitration rights. Then by 26 they gain the right to be a UFA. Because of those factors if a player somehow becomes elite in their late 20's that organization may have already lost them via waivers, gave up their rights because of an arbitration hearing that they didn't like or the player may have walked away from the organization once they gained UFA eligibility.

 

[BondraTime]

The mitigating circumstance if I recall correctly was the lack of scouting due to COVID.

Not an excuse, given how much of a reach he was, but an explanation.

Not a lot of home runs in general that year, no?

It was an oxymoron of a draft.

They swung for the fences with their pick, but the person they decided to put up to the plate for their homerun swing had a 0.123 batting average with no homeruns. The safe, ball in play oprions are all looking pretty good, with Sillinger already at 200 gp, and Cornato, Rosen, Othman and Bolduc being the guys taken after are all having fantastic years in the AHL along with their first calls of duty in the NHL.

If you're going to use the pick on a surprise projection based player, use it on a highly skilled guy who has a high ceiling, or even a ceiling. Not a guy you hope becomes Cal Clutterbuck. Use you later picks on that kind of profile, use the prime picks on the prime profiles.

We wasted that pick, plain and simple.

I "understand" what they were going for, and get that having a guy play a role is valuable, but it was a huge, HUGE waste of a prime asset.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Boucher has good tools and has demonstrated flashes of high end skill. One of the problems is that there is a big gap between his skill set and his production, a second problem is a consistency issue as the flashes of high end skill are not frequent enough.

One of the reasons why he was drafted so high is the premium the Sens placed on his physicality. Another plausible explanation is that the Sens may have speculated that it was simply an experiential gap that was creating the disparity between his skill set and his production and his consistency issues. The Sens likely underestimated how difficult of a development task it was going to be to breach the gap between his flashes of skill and production.

It is interesting because Sens development coach, Shean Donovan was asked about Boucher on TSN1200 at the start of the season and he seemed quite optimistic about what Boucher could become. He said something along the lines that Boucher is the kind of player that will break into the NHL as a 4th liner and then the skies the limit for what he could become. Interestingly enough he seemed more optimistic about the upside of Boucher than Ostapchuk who he said could become a Nick Paul kind of player for the Sens. Ostapchuk has certainly demonstrated more clear signs of development than Boucher has since being drafted so it is interesting that Donovan would say such a thing.

My guess is that Boucher demonstrates quite a bit of skill in drills and various types of training sessions. That this leads to an optimistic view of what he could become. But at the same time it creates the perplexing question of why there is an inconsistency in those skills and why is it not leading to more clear improvements in production.

Based on McKenzie's rankings at the time of the 2021 draft, Boucher was expected to go somewhere from the tail end of the first round to mid second round. It is a more reasonable spot for a prospect who demonstrates flashes of ability but needs a lot of development.

Boucher has a lot more skill than people on here give him credit for. Maybe his production ends up surprising people down the line and he ends up being a high quality middle six forward. The issue with that is that if it happens, it might end up being over a time frame that is similar to that of a late draft pick or undrafted player. There are plenty of players that surprise people as to what they become in their mid to late 20's.

It seems like for high draft picks though, that it is less of a concern of what they could eventually become and more of a concern about what age they reach that potential by and how certain an organization is that the prospect in question that will reach that potential by that age. That might be heavily influenced by managing contracts. It is certainly preferable to have a player produce like a top six forward while they are cost controlled on their ELC.

A prospect becomes waiver eligible relatively quickly after their ELC ends. Shortly after that the player in question gets arbitration rights. Then by 26 they gain the right to be a UFA. Because of those factors if a player somehow becomes elite in their late 20's that organization may have already lost them via waivers, gave up their rights because of an arbitration hearing that they didn't like or the player may have walked away from the organization once they gained UFA eligibility.

McKenzie had Boucher at 29.
UFA is after 7 years in league, so earliest is 25, if older player then less than 7 years needed.

 

[Senator Stanley]

Boucher has good tools and has demonstrated flashes of high end skill. One of the problems is that there is a big gap between his skill set and his production, a second problem is a consistency issue as the flashes of high end skill are not frequent enough.

One of the reasons why he was drafted so high is the premium the Sens placed on his physicality. Another plausible explanation is that the Sens may have speculated that it was simply an experiential gap that was creating the disparity between his skill set and his production and his consistency issues. The Sens likely underestimated how difficult of a development task it was going to be to breach the gap between his flashes of skill and production.

It is interesting because Sens development coach, Shean Donovan was asked about Boucher on TSN1200 at the start of the season and he seemed quite optimistic about what Boucher could become. He said something along the lines that Boucher is the kind of player that will break into the NHL as a 4th liner and then the skies the limit for what he could become. Interestingly enough he seemed more optimistic about the upside of Boucher than Ostapchuk who he said could become a Nick Paul kind of player for the Sens. Ostapchuk has certainly demonstrated more clear signs of development than Boucher has since being drafted so it is interesting that Donovan would say such a thing.

My guess is that Boucher demonstrates quite a bit of skill in drills and various types of training sessions. That this leads to an optimistic view of what he could become. But at the same time it creates the perplexing question of why there is an inconsistency in those skills and why is it not leading to more clear improvements in production.

Based on McKenzie's rankings at the time of the 2021 draft, Boucher was expected to go somewhere from the tail end of the first round to mid second round. It is a more reasonable spot for a prospect who demonstrates flashes of ability but needs a lot of development.

Boucher has a lot more skill than people on here give him credit for. Maybe his production ends up surprising people down the line and he ends up being a high quality middle six forward. The issue with that is that if it happens, it might end up being over a time frame that is similar to that of a late draft pick or undrafted player. There are plenty of players that surprise people as to what they become in their mid to late 20's.

It seems like for high draft picks though, that it is less of a concern of what they could eventually become and more of a concern about what age they reach that potential by and how certain an organization is that the prospect in question that will reach that potential by that age. That might be heavily influenced by managing contracts. It is certainly preferable to have a player produce like a top six forward while they are cost controlled on their ELC.

A prospect becomes waiver eligible relatively quickly after their ELC ends. Shortly after that the player in question gets arbitration rights. Then by 26 they gain the right to be a UFA. Because of those factors if a player somehow becomes elite in their late 20's that organization may have already lost them via waivers, gave up their rights because of an arbitration hearing that they didn't like or the player may have walked away from the organization once they gained UFA eligibility.

Outside of his wrist shot, I've never seen any high end skill in Boucher's game. Unless we're taking the view that things like physicality are a skill.

Part of what limits Boucher is actually a concerning lack of skill. If you watch him, he's not comfortable skating with the puck on his stick. He shows small-area puck skills when he's standing in place, but as soon as he's asked to do things with any pace it falls apart.

The Sens under Dorion/Murray either had a blind spot for this kind of thing or just didn't value it when evaluating prospects. Colin White and Curtis Lazar were first rounders who also lacked NHL-quality puck skills and hit walls in their careers' because of it.

 

[Icelevel]

Boucher has good tools and has demonstrated flashes of high end skill. One of the problems is that there is a big gap between his skill set and his production, a second problem is a consistency issue as the flashes of high end skill are not frequent enough.

One of the reasons why he was drafted so high is the premium the Sens placed on his physicality. Another plausible explanation is that the Sens may have speculated that it was simply an experiential gap that was creating the disparity between his skill set and his production and his consistency issues. The Sens likely underestimated how difficult of a development task it was going to be to breach the gap between his flashes of skill and production.

It is interesting because Sens development coach, Shean Donovan was asked about Boucher on TSN1200 at the start of the season and he seemed quite optimistic about what Boucher could become. He said something along the lines that Boucher is the kind of player that will break into the NHL as a 4th liner and then the skies the limit for what he could become. Interestingly enough he seemed more optimistic about the upside of Boucher than Ostapchuk who he said could become a Nick Paul kind of player for the Sens. Ostapchuk has certainly demonstrated more clear signs of development than Boucher has since being drafted so it is interesting that Donovan would say such a thing.

My guess is that Boucher demonstrates quite a bit of skill in drills and various types of training sessions. That this leads to an optimistic view of what he could become. But at the same time it creates the perplexing question of why there is an inconsistency in those skills and why is it not leading to more clear improvements in production.

Based on McKenzie's rankings at the time of the 2021 draft, Boucher was expected to go somewhere from the tail end of the first round to mid second round. It is a more reasonable spot for a prospect who demonstrates flashes of ability but needs a lot of development.

Boucher has a lot more skill than people on here give him credit for. Maybe his production ends up surprising people down the line and he ends up being a high quality middle six forward. The issue with that is that if it happens, it might end up being over a time frame that is similar to that of a late draft pick or undrafted player. There are plenty of players that surprise people as to what they become in their mid to late 20's.

It seems like for high draft picks though, that it is less of a concern of what they could eventually become and more of a concern about what age they reach that potential by and how certain an organization is that the prospect in question that will reach that potential by that age. That might be heavily influenced by managing contracts. It is certainly preferable to have a player produce like a top six forward while they are cost controlled on their ELC.

A prospect becomes waiver eligible relatively quickly after their ELC ends. Shortly after that the player in question gets arbitration rights. Then by 26 they gain the right to be a UFA. Because of those factors if a player somehow becomes elite in their late 20's that organization may have already lost them via waivers, gave up their rights because of an arbitration hearing that they didn't like or the player may have walked away from the organization once they gained UFA eligibility.

Yeah I agree with what Donovan said. These injuries are killer.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Any Dreams of top 6 potential for Boucher should be tempered at this point. The lack of playing time in critical development years will take a toll. IMO he has to focus on being really responsible without the puck, bring energy through his physical play and chip in here and there. I think he is looking at a 4th line role in he NHL and if he can be smart and responsible defensively he will carve something out. Another year +/- in Belleville focusing on that . I think that's where he has to start and its not impossible he can expand that role. I agree he has shown some flashes (shooting, making plays) offensively but they were sparse this year , granted he was playing down the lineup in Belleville for the most part which itself is telling. His biggest assets to me are he can skate with power and speed and he can bring a better than average physical game. (he has not been able to stay healthy is a concern there) I don't think he will show enough offense to unseat someone like Greig playing wing or Joseph on the 3rd line and the Sens need to get deeper. Next year we have to watch for Belleville trusting him to close out games like they've done with Ostapchuk and Kleven.

4th line in the NHL means anywhere from 5-8 minutes to 10-11 minutes a game. To get 10-11 you need to PK and be good defensively. All players at all levels are continually working on their games to get better and /or stay in the league with no guarantees. Boucher was a Dorion (previous regime) pick so I think he'll really need to prove his way on to the NHL roster which I hope is increasingly difficult to do for any player, no preferential treatment.

 

[Micklebot]

Outside of his wrist shot, I've never seen any high end skill in Boucher's game. Unless we're taking the view that things like physicality are a skill.

Part of what limits Boucher is actually a concerning lack of skill. If you watch him, he's not comfortable skating with the puck on his stick. He shows small-area puck skills when he's standing in place, but as soon as he's asked to do things with any pace it falls apart.

The Sens under Dorion/Murray either had a blind spot for this kind of thing or just didn't value it when evaluating prospects. Colin White and Curtis Lazar were first rounders who also lacked NHL-quality puck skills and hit walls in their careers' because of it.

His skating is good too, I'd say his skill is underrated but not high end.

I still hold out hope that he can stay healthy and become a bottom 6 fwd, maybe a bigger more physical Kelly? Going into the draft I was hoping for Josh Anderson as a projection, I don't think he gets there.

 

[Alf Silfversson]

Outside of his wrist shot, I've never seen any high end skill in Boucher's game. Unless we're taking the view that things like physicality are a skill.

Part of what limits Boucher is actually a concerning lack of skill. If you watch him, he's not comfortable skating with the puck on his stick. He shows small-area puck skills when he's standing in place, but as soon as he's asked to do things with any pace it falls apart.

The Sens under Dorion/Murray either had a blind spot for this kind of thing or just didn't value it when evaluating prospects. Colin White and Curtis Lazar were first rounders who also lacked NHL-quality puck skills and hit walls in their careers' because of it.

He skates relatively well but I agree with you otherwise.

But even with just decent mobility and a good shot he should have been able to fill the net as a 20 year old in the OHL (obviously only in the games he was healthy for). He didn't do that. And I think it's because he lacks offensive hockey smarts.

Hopefully he just stays healthy moving forward and can carve out a 4th line career.

It's a cautionary tale, though, of not picking certain types of players in the draft to match what you think your NHL team needs. You pick the good players. Even bottom six grinders in the NHL were mostly high production players in junior. Take a guy like Shaun Van Allen from back in the day. He was a scorer at lower levels but adapted his game to be a grinder in the NHL.