The lesson the Carolina Hurricanes can teach the doubters of the Edmonton Oilers' Evan Bouchard
Although I will not hold my breath.
In the most recent edition of his influential 32 Thoughts Podcast, Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Carolina Hurricanes were a factor in Bouchard's new four-year, $42m contract extension.
There has concern for some time that an offer sheet could be lurking out there with Bouchard as a target. Even the super-smart Brian Lawton on Oilers Now! with Bob Stauffer had mused about the possibility, and suggested the club lock the blueliner up before another team took a shot at Bouchard.
And in Friedman's piece, at least one National Hockey League team had signaled they were prepared to do just that, as Edmonton was apparently pitching a four-year, $38m deal:
'The Hurricanes made it very clear that they had a lot of cap room, as everybody knew, and they were going to use it', said Elliotte Friedman..
After describing Carolina's interest in Mitch Marner, Friedman then continued with this:
'Carolina did a lot of things that are now coming to the surface to show that they were willing to be aggressive. The reason Evan Bouchard's extension got done in Edmonton so quickly was because they threatened the Oilers with an offer sheet. And you know, we'll find out someday what the truth is there'.
It is a moot point now, of course. Bouchard is all securely locked up for four years in Edmonton and there is now zero risk losing him.
But the point that I want to make it that one of the elite teams in the NHL wanted Bouchard. Badly. In fact, it was to the point where they pursued him aggressively. And Carolina is not a franchise that historically, at least, is a big spender. But they were willing to do so with Bouchard. Hmmm…
These are the same Hurricanes that have been either #1 or #2 in the Metropolitan Division for the past five years. They have the second-best PTS% in the league over the past five years than any team except the Colorado Avalanche. And in two of the past three years, the 'Canes have made it to the Conference Finals.
Translation: Except that they have not yet won the Stanley Cup over that stretch, Carolina is an elite NHL franchise.
And they wanted the guy that so many Oilers fans persist in wanting to fire into the sun or at the very least…shuffle off to another team.
And look: I too get some of the frustration over Evan's defensive game. Is he the perfect player? No. Neither was Paul Coffey, now comfortably ensconced in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But Bouchard has taken that two-way performance to a much higher level in consecutive post-seasons, during deep runs when the battles are the toughest.
Then there is his production. He has the eleventh most points of any D-man over the past five years in the NHL regular season. He was 18-64-82 in 2023-24, then 14-53-67 in 2024-15. It is Norris-level offence.
And in terms of points per game in the playoffs, Bouchard is second only to Bobby Orr, for god's sake. 6-26-32 in 2023-24 and 7-16-23 in 2024-25. Again, this is against playoff teams, not a dud in the bunch.
The Cult of Hockey's Grade 'A' Scoring Chances project shows Bouchard leading the D-corps in 5v5 Grade A +/- during the regular season at +0.20 per 15. Then in the playoffs, against the toughest of comp, it was +0.86 per 15.
Put another way: Evan Bouchard is an elite NHL performer. So, do the detractors really know more than Eric Tulsky? Better than most of the other General Manager's in the league?
And if it turns out you do, well then you have my respect. I look forward to writing about you in the near future.
Now on Bluesky @kurtleavins.bsky.social. Also, find me on Threads @kleavins, Twitter @KurtLeavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and Mastodon at KurtLeavins@mstdn.social.
This article is not AI generated.
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Bruce McCurdy, 1955-2025.
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