Oiled Up: Evan Bouchard Is On A Mission To Become The First NHL Defenseman To Score 50 Goals In A Season
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.Evan Bouchard had 74 assists last year as a defenseman. The list for guys who have had more assists than him in a season before is mostly just Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey a bunch of times. He has proven that he's one of the best offensive defenseman in the sport of hockey, but let's be real for a moment--it's a bit of a cheat code to rack up assists while you're out on the ice with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. 74 assists is 74 assists, but who knows what that number would look like if he only had guys like Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett to work with.
So this year, Evan Bouchard wants to leave zero doubt that he's one of the best two-way guys in the game. He doesn't want all of his points to come from assists. Instead, he wants to lead the league in scoring.
6 goals and 5 assists through 4 games so far this season for Evan Bouchard.
Paul Coffey scored the most goals in a season by an NHL defenseman with 48 goals in 1985-86. That just happened to be the same year when Wayne Gretzky set the record for most points in a season with 215, coming off of 52 goals and 163 assists. Jari Kurri had 68 goals and 63 assists that year. So if Evan Bouchard wants to keep up with Paul Coffey, he's going to need McDavid to put up some Gretzky number, and he's going to need Leon to put up some Kurri numbers.
McDavid is on pace this year for 252 points.
It's been the best 4-game start to his NHL career so far with 12 points.
And Leon is on pace for 189 points thanks to this preposterous sauce to Vasily Podkolzin last night.
So yeah. Maybe this is the year for Evan Bouchard to become the first NHL defenseman to score 50 goals in a season. I'm sure Edmonton fans would love to see that. Until you realize that historic 1986 season ultimately ended the Oilers' chances of winning 5 Cups in a row.
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What would you rather see? Bouchard become the first defenseman to score 50, and McDavid to set the new record for most points in a season? Or a Stanley Cup? Or maybe Babcock is just the missing piece, and they get to have both.