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 aren’t just tasked with making an NHL team succeed.