Sportsnet panel makes a bold Evan Bouchard declaration

Photo credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Evan Bouchard is giving Kris Knoblauch’s Oilers more than blue-line offense now. He’s forcing his way into a real Norris Trophy discussion.

That’s not hype for the sake of hype.

When panelists start calling a defenceman one of the NHL’s best on the power play, and maybe the best in the league at driving offense from that spot, the conversation changes.

Bouchard has earned that kind of talk.

He has put up 20 goals and 87 points in 76 games, and for an offensive defenceman, that kind of production puts him in rare air.

What makes him stand out is how he controls the top unit.

He doesn’t just stand at the point and move pucks around.

He slows the game down, picks his lane, changes the angle, and keeps the penalty kill guessing with one touch.

That’s where his value jumps off the screen.

The Oilers have star forwards everywhere, but Bouchard is the defenceman feeding that machine and keeping the power play dangerous from up top.

Bouchard is no longer just a power-play specialist

This is why the Norris talk feels real.

Nobody is saying he has to be the runaway favorite. But if the award is about impact from the back end, Bouchard has a serious case to at least be in the thick of it.

He has become one of those defencemen who can change a game without rushing around or forcing plays.

Everything looks calm with him. Then the puck is on a stick in a scoring area, and the whole setup looks obvious even though it started with his read from the blue line.

And on a team with playoff expectations, that matters even more.

Edmonton doesn’t need Bouchard to be flashy every shift. It needs him to run major minutes, drive offense, and keep that power play humming.

So yes, he belongs in the Norris conversation. Probably not as some fringe name either.

When a defenceman is getting called the best in the league on the power play, and his production backs it up, that’s not background noise anymore.

Previously on Edmonton Hockey Daily

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