Edmonton Oilers fans are intimately familiar with the general sentiment in the hockey world on superstar defender Evan Bouchard. Sometimes it even seeps into our own fanbase. The story around Bouchard always seems to fall back to him being a player who is utterly useless defensively and only good offensively. Often referred to as a fourth forward.
As a younger defender, particularly an offensive defender, Bouchard was prone to defensive gaffes and was not a reliable option on his own on the back end.
But since he has been paired with Mattias Ekholm most of the time since Ekholm’s acquisition in 2022, Bouchard’s defensive game has taken massive steps forward—steps which most of the hockey world is completely oblivious to.
Case in point, the Hockey Night in Canada intermission panel this past Saturday. As part of a debate between the panellists regarding who they would have on their ballot for the Norris Trophy, which suspiciously lacked discourse on Bouchard, a couple of points were brought up that immediately raised the eyebrows of Oilers fans, including those of Bob Stauffer.
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HNIC panel settling the score on the NHL’s best defender
In the discussion on the HNIC panel, two names were prominent: Rasmus Dahlin and Cale Makar. The Buffalo Sabres have seen progress this season that they have been waiting for for upwards of 15 years. This is in large part due to the leadership and play of Dahlin, vaulting him into this conversation as a serious contender for the first time. Makar, on the other hand, is a known commodity as a Norris contender, as Kevin Bieksa so confidently conveys.
The panel was discussing this over a graphic of the leading defensive scorers, one which has Bouchard’s name at the top. 10 whole points clear of second-place Zach Werenski at the time of the panel. But where was Bouchard in all of this? Mentioned as an afterthought, not a serious contender.
Bieksa, Chris Pronger, and Elliotte Friedman seemed sure in their selections. Dahlin and Makar gained the bulk of the consideration for their ballots. Bouchard would be on their ballots, but much farther down.
Should Bouchard be in the Norris Trophy discussion this season?
In a word, yes. Evan Bouchard should be in the Norris Trophy conversation. Much more prominently than he has been to this point. He is frequently at or near the top of any wins above replacement leaderboard, such as being second amongst defenders on HockeyStats.com. According to Moneypuck, Bouchard is second amongst defenders in on-ice goal differential, behind only Lane Hutson. He is the leading defensive scorer by 10 full points at the time of writing.
With 91 points and two games remaining on the schedule, Bouchard has performed more than well enough offensively to earn serious Norris Trophy consideration. So why is he being left out by many major analysts and insiders? Reputation, likely. Bouchard’s defensive gaffes are publicized and discussed far more than anything he does correctly. Especially at the beginning of the 2025–26 season. He did have a rough go of it for the first month. But the entire team struggled to find their feet.
Bob Stauffer’s counterpoint to Kevin Bieksa’s Cale Makar argument
One of the biggest takeaways from Kevin Bieksa’s statement that Makar is the best defender in the league was that none of the other guys on the top scorers list play on the penalty kill. But, as Oilers reporter Bob Stauffer easily countered, that is just not true.
Bouchard has been one of the most regular penalty killers on the Oilers roster this season. In fact, he leads Edmonton’s players in shorthanded time on ice, clearing second-place Ekholm by seven minutes. Bouchard averages 1:48 in shorthanded time on ice per game.
The other point that Stauffer’s data refutes is the impact on play that Bouchard and Makar have on their respective teams and linemates. Bouchard’s presence on the ice at even-strength increases his team’s expected goals for percentage by eight percent. Whereas the Avalanche actually get slightly worse at 5v5 when Makar is on the ice.
And for the easy argument against those numbers, Bouchard does not play all of his time with Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl. Most, yes. But Bouchard still plays 20% of his total ice time without one or both of McDavid or Draisaitl on the ice.
And in terms of directly comparing these two in other ways defensively, Bouchard has a much lower offensive zone start percentage, 59.6% to Makar’s 66.9. A far lower PDO, 0.994 to Makar’s 1.033. And a slightly lower high danger chances against per 60, with Bouchard clocking in at 10.7 compared to Makar’s 12.3.
So, Bouchard spends more time starting in the defensive zone. Generally, giving up fewer chances. And combining some of these stats with context helps show a primary difference between the teams is goaltending—Edmonton has far worse goaltending than Colorado, as evidenced by the Avalanche’s team save percentage at all strengths of .905 compared to Edmonton’s fourth-worst of .877.
Why is Bouchard’s defensive game amplified negatively? Whereas Makar’s is largely glossed over in favour of his offence?
Does this (yet again) bring to light issues with Norris Trophy voting?
Over the years, the Norris Trophy has often had the most controversial voting criteria and ballots. For ages, there has been significant debate over the recipient of the award usually being one of, if not the top, defensive scorer. Seems odd for an award for best defender to just go to the best offensive defender. An ongoing debate remains that the defensive award should be split into two: one for the best offensive defender, and one for the best defensive defender.
This would help avoid overlooking some of the legitimately amazing defensive defenders who get little to no recognition due to little offensive impact. For example, in the WAR leaderboard for defenders on HockeyStats.com, the only defender with remotely enough offensive impact to place near the top defensive scorers is Moritz Seider. His 60 points are a far cry from the 80 to 90 the Norris Trophy winner has been putting up in recent years, but he has the highest defensive WAR of any defender this season.
Reputation voting is another known issue being brought to light. This is not the first Norris Trophy where the favourite is in that position because of name recognition and reputation. Makar has the reputation and, this season, has been in the spotlight with his presence on the Olympic team in February. Even though his performance has him absent on some of the underlying numbers leaderboards, and he doesn’t necessarily make the biggest noticeable impact on his team’s performance on similar metrics, he is in the conversation because he has been before. As Bieksa alludes to, he knows Makar is the best defender in the league. He does not need to be on those lists to show it.
Bouchard, on the other hand, has a negative reputation from his past of being picked apart online due to defensive mistakes. Even though he has spent the majority of the season being a solid, reliable player, a difficult first month and a couple of prominent turnovers in recent games are what get highlighted. Even the media are susceptible to this, apparently, as they still underrate Bouchard’s impact on the game around him.
All this to say, Bouchard is being majorly snubbed in discussions for the 2026 Norris Trophy. Even though he is performing similarly to, if not better than, his closest competitors, he is barely even in conversations for people’s ballots.
It seems that if it were Makar or Quinn Hughes with a 10-point lead on the defensive scoring list, they would be a lock to win the Norris. Even though these other defenders, especially Hughes, have similar defensive deficiencies to Bouchard. But the longstanding reputation of Bouchard’s play is amplified in these discussions to a point that even prominent media are overlooking Edmonton’s star defender for award ballot recognition.
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The other reason he won’t get it is because he plays for Edmonton. More than 50% of the voters are in bed before the puck drops in Edmonton. same reason the Oilers have never had a Calder winner.
Or because their rookies have never been the best in the league that specific season….
He’s not even top 10 in plus/minus. That needs to be the biggest measurement for defensive success… The bias from fan sites is hilarious.