Edmonton Oilers: Evan Bouchard and Development Curves

I’m very excited about Bouchard. It feels like the Edmonton Oilers have been waiting for a decade to get that top pairing RHD; luckily for us, Bouchard gives us our best chance to get one.

Edmonton Oilers: The unfortunate reality is that Evan Bouchard is not NHL ready. Although he will be starting the 18/19 season on the Edmonton Oilers, stats say he won’t stick. When you look at comparable players to where Bouchard was drafted, you quickly realize that NHL defensemen develop slow. It is extremely rare for defensemen to jump straight into the NHL from their draft year. Even P.K Subban played both in the CHL and in the AHL before making the jump to the NHL.

As an NHL general manager, you…