Bouchard returns to junior after taste of NHL
Evan Bouchard confirmed very early on that he is exactly who the Edmonton Oilers hoped he’d be when they drafted him 10th overall last summer.
There is no doubt he soon will be high-end offensive defenceman running his own NHL power play, but it won’t be this year. The Oilers made the right call and returned him to the OHL’s London Knights Friday morning.
Bouchard went out on a high, scoring the first goal of his career against the Stanley Cup-champion Washington Capitals on home ice in the seventh and final game of his audition. He sat out the next four before the Oilers made the final decision.
Had Matt Benning and Jason Garrison not tightened up their games recently, Bouchard might have stayed, but that would have been falling into the dangerous area of keeping a young player out of need, not because it’s necessarily the best thing for his development.
People can list dozens of players who were ruined because too much was asked of them too soon, but trying to recall players hurt by an extra year of junior or AHL development is when the head scratching begins.
Bouchard will play a ton of minutes in the OHL and come back to Edmonton older and stronger. He’ll have junior habits that need to be expunged from his game, but now that he’s seen the inside of the NHL he has a better idea what he needs to to work on down there.