Would you trade Bouchard?

[Tobias Kahun]

It all comes down to the price. We don’t want to pay twice for mcdavid and draisaitl.

The Rantsnen negotiations should be a wake-up call for all players looking for their bag.

If you want to stay on a team that has a chance to win, better negotiate in good faith.

I don’t think the whole threat of negotiate in good faith or we’ll make our team significantly worse by trading you will hold much weight.

 

[CupofOil]

And Bouchard is quite a bit better than all of those at moving the puck.

People who don't want to pay Bouchard don't realize how hard it will be to find another Bouchard.
Said the same thing about Draisaitl when so many were criticizing him.

But this is also the same fanbase that damn near ran Paul Coffey out of town or so I heard, wasn't a fan back then.

It's always been a fanbase that loves their grinders, those guys have always endeared to this fanbase. The skilled guys, outside of McDavid, not so much.

 

[Canovin]

The flat cap lasted two extra seasons because of the escrow getting paid off.

Even with 2 years grace period, Nurse is still overpaid

 

[McDNicks17]

He’s overpaid by a few million but ultimately that was the market at the time. At least he has been very solid defensively this year. Dude has been a rock back there. If only he had a little better offense. lol

I wouldn't say Nurse's offense has been bad. He's(15 points) pretty much right between Bouchard(21) and Ekholm(13) in 5v5 points.

And he's third on the entire team in primary assists at 5v5 only behind McDrai.

 

[AM]

I don’t think the whole threat of negotiate in good faith or we’ll make our team significantly worse by trading you will hold much weight.

Depends who you trade for doesn’t it.

 

[Canovin]

And Bouchard is quite a bit better than all of those at moving the puck.

On paper he's better than them, I agree. Just watching him, offensively which is his strength, is really frustrating to watch a lot of nights. The bright side is he's still young. Lots of time to correct those lackadaisical plays

 

[McDNicks17]

Depends who you trade for doesn’t it.

I can't really think of any examples where teams have won that kind of trade.

 

[Canovin]

People who don't want to pay Bouchard don't realize how hard it will be to find another Bouchard.
Said the same thing about Draisaitl when so many were criticizing him.

But this is also the same fanbase that damn near ran Paul Coffey out of town or so I heard, wasn't a fan back then.

It's always been a fanbase that loves their grinders, those guys have always endeared to this fanbase. The skilled guys, outside of McDavid, not so much.

It's funny you mentioned this cause if you did a poll, Hemsky would come out on top as favorite from those years lol

 

[Stoneman89]

Bouchard has been a hot topic for a couple years now. Early last season I was hoping that they would trade Bouchard but under Coffey Bouchard really came on and shown himself to be an elite offensive dman and got his defensive game on track as well, not only in the regular season but in the playoffs against tough competition he showed he can play very well when it is hard.

This season seems to be a pretty consistent showing of Bouchards defensive liabilities and now that has the discussion going again, would you trade Bouchard?

Sounds like you still want to trade him, thus the thread start.

And the answer is a loud NO, as I'm sure it will be for nearly every one on here. The minute you do that, you start looking for his replacement, and good luck with that. Despite his shortcomings, which drive everyone crazy, he is still a unique talent and has shown his worth in 2 straight playoffs.

The wildcard though in all of this thought, is what his ask will be for a contract. Everyone has a reasonable limit.

 

[AM]

I can't really think of any examples where teams have won that kind of trade.

Judging by karlsson movements in the last few years, anyone who didn’t make the contract won that trade.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

It depends on his ask...the term and also what the potential return might be.

As I said in another thread I would be in the Hell no camp if Bouchards lows werent so brutally bad. I am also perplexed how after 300+ NHL games he still has moments and even entire games where this is still an issue.

If his lows meant that he was just not impactful (invisible) that would be fine. Thats just not the case though...Bouchards lows so so low that he is a major liability when he is on the ice. Sometimes that can be an enitre game.
So I cant see how that wouldnt impact negotiations moving forward.
Thats why IMO Bouchard is definitely not an untouchable on this team.

are you familiar with Darnell Nurse?

Judging by karlsson movements in the last few years, anyone who didn’t make the contract won that trade.

Erik Karlsson won a Norris in 2023.

 

[McDNicks17]

Judging by karlsson movements in the last few years, anyone who didn’t make the contract won that trade.

I'm talking about teams trading their RFAs over salary.

Ottawa got some great value on Karlsson's RFA deal. Six years of point-per-game hockey at just shy of 11% of the cap. Then they traded him for Stutzle, Ostapchuk, Norris and some other spare parts.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Depends who you trade for doesn’t it.

Not really. There's no way in hell you win a Bouchard trade. It opens up a much bigger hole than anything we got back would fill.

Let's pull a name out of a hat. Say the Oilers traded Bouchard to Dallas for Jason Robertson. Hey, that's a good player!

... now what? Your defense is in shambles. There's no money to fix it. The right side is now Kulak, Klingberg who may or may not be cooked, and Emberson. Are you a better team for it? Doubt it very much.

 

[Sethual]

If he wants more than Nurse I mean Cale Makar then hell no. He is nowhere near the player Makar is or ever will be. He is a PP merchant 100% and he f***ED us in game 7 by taking 87 years to move his slow feet up the ice and do anything with the puck. f*** Bitchard.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Over the last 3 years his xGF% away from all of McDavid, Ekholm and Draisaitl is 59.81% in 617 5 vs 5 minutes. Since the start of 2023-2024 away from all three he has a 58.34 % GF% and an xGF% of 59.92% though in only 138 minutes.

Since the beginning of 2023-24 his numbers away from Ekholm are:

TOI 405 min CF% 59.83 SF% 59.82 GF% 55.81 xGF% 61.46 SCF% 59.76 HDCF% 61.98

This is sort of like the McDavid/Leon situation. The two players complement one another very well but both can be good at the same time.

There will inevitably be "OKAY YEAH BUT HOW ABOUT AWAY FROM EKHOLM DRAI AND MCDAVID" and sure if you want to play him exclusively with bums, his numbers will suffer.

This is common of most high end defencemen.

Don't believe me?

Cale Makar away from MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Toews has a 38% XGF.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

If he wants more than Nurse I mean Cale Makar then hell no. He is nowhere near the player Makar is or ever will be. He is a PP merchant 100% and he f***ED us in game 7 by taking 87 years to move his slow feet up the ice and do anything with the puck. f*** Bitchard.

Thanks for telling everyone you don’t understand hockey.

Didn’t need so many words to do that though

 

[ChaoticOrange]

If he wants more than Nurse I mean Cale Makar then hell no. He is nowhere near the player Makar is or ever will be. He is a PP merchant 100% and he f***ED us in game 7 by taking 87 years to move his slow feet up the ice and do anything with the puck. f*** Bitchard.

low IQ take. Bouchard had one of the best playoff runs a defenceman has ever had and got Conn Smythe votes. Don't pitch revisionist history.

 

[AM]

I'm talking about teams trading their RFAs over salary.

Ottawa got some great value on Karlsson's RFA deal. Six years of point-per-game hockey at just shy of 11% of the cap. Then they traded him for Stutzle, Ostapchuk, Norris and some other spare parts.

I’m not suggesting trading, I’m just pointing out you don’t want to pay for the past when you’re getting the future.

Also, the compensation on a good team is less than the compensation on an also ran.

 

[Canovin]

Can’t help but think we can flip Bouchard for picks and flip those picks for Rasmus Anderson and Weegar lol

 

[dem]

The Bouchard takes are just.. wow.

Trying to run Evan Bouchard out of town is such an Oiler thing to do.

Be thankful he didn't put up ridiculous numbers this year. We might actually be able to sign him.

Btw he is still on pace for like... 60 points. Like... good lord.

 

[oXo Cube]

If he wants more than Nurse I mean Cale Makar then hell no. He is nowhere near the player Makar is or ever will be. He is a PP merchant 100% and he f***ED us in game 7 by taking 87 years to move his slow feet up the ice and do anything with the puck. f*** Bitchard.

This is just not how contract negotiations work in the NHL. Salaries rise with the cap and the cap is going to be 15-20 million dollars higher this Summer than it was when Makar signed his current contract.

 

[AM]

Not really. There's no way in hell you win a Bouchard trade. It opens up a much bigger hole than anything we got back would fill.

Let's pull a name out of a hat. Say the Oilers traded Bouchard to Dallas for Jason Robertson. Hey, that's a good player!

... now what? Your defense is in shambles. There's no money to fix it. The right side is now Kulak, Klingberg who may or may not be cooked, and Emberson. Are you a better team for it? Doubt it very much.

You obviously don’t make the trade currently and you likely need a fall back position.

It becomes more interesting if klingberg beats Bouchard out of his spot.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Can’t help but think we can flip Bouchard for picks and flip those picks for Rasmus Anderson and Weegar lol

So we can have worse players?

You obviously don’t make the trade currently and you likely need a fall back position.

It becomes more interesting if klingberg beats Bouchard out of his spot.

If people are upset at bouchards defensive game, they’ll run klingberg out of town before game 10

 

[oXo Cube]

low IQ take. Bouchard had one of the best playoff runs a defenceman has ever had and got Conn Smythe votes. Don't pitch revisionist history.

Just gonna post this again. The 2024 NHL Playoffs:

When Evan was on the bench the Oilers were flat out bad McDavid or otherwise.

 

[Canovin]

So we can have worse players?


If people are upset at bouchards defensive game, they’ll run klingberg out of town before game 10

You think Bouchard is better than having both Andersson and Weegar?