Edmonton Oilers expected to sign Evan Bouchard

The Edmonton Oilers are closing in on a two-year extension with their last remaining RFA, defenseman Evan Bouchard. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the deal will be worth around $3.9M per season.

Bouchard, Edmonton’s tenth-overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, all but solidified his trajectory as a bonafide top-four defenseman last season. In his second full-time NHL campaign, Bouchard recorded at least 40 points after doing so in his rookie season and improved on already decent possession metrics.

It was the postseason, however, where Bouchard earned himself widespread attention. Despite getting eliminated in the Second Round, Bouchard led all defensemen in playoff points last season with four goals and 13 assists for 17 points in just 12 games. Averaging 23 minutes per game, Bouchard put his skills as a developing elite power-play quarterback on full display, recording 15 of his 17 points on Edmonton’s top special teams unit.

While Bouchard could have very well secured more money and term with unlimited resources, all signs pointed to a bridge deal throughout the negotiation process. Oilers general manager Ken Holland still finds himself in quite a tricky dance with the salary cap’s Upper Limit, having his options extremely limited on the free agent market and needing to settle for bridge deals with Bouchard and center Ryan McLeod to conserve space.

A $3.9MM cap hit for Bouchard would put the Oilers roughly $400K over the cap with a roster of 22 players, per CapFriendly’s projections. Assigning a player to the minors and starting the season with a 21-player roster will make the team compliant. The odd player out could very well be 2020 first-round pick Dylan Holloway, thanks to an unfortunate numbers game, as he’s the team’s only potential assignment candidate who does not require waivers. Others, such as 2019 second-round pick Raphaël Lavoie, will likely be claimed if exposed on the waiver wire.

Next season, Bouchard is set to reprise his role alongside Mattias Ekholm on the team’s second pairing, which performed incredibly well down the stretch after the Oilers acquired Ekholm near the trade deadline from the Nashville Predators. It was their most effective pairing in terms of generating offense in the postseason, too. The right-shot defender will again slot in as the point man on the Oilers’ world-beating top power-play unit boasting Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

As the 23-year-old develops, look for him to eclipse the 20-minute-per-game mark for the first time this season. He’s seen 19:48 and 18:31 of action per game in each other last two seasons, respectively.