{"id":855497,"date":"2026-08-12T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/855497\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T15:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:38:15","slug":"oilers-analyst-blasts-evan-bouchards-ranking-among-nhl-d-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/855497\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers analyst blasts Evan Bouchard\u2019s ranking among NHL D-men"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evan Bouchard\u2019s No. 10 ranking among the NHL<\/a>\u2019s top defensemen has raised eyebrows around the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NHL Network producers and analysts revealed their top 20 defensemen<\/a> Sunday, Aug. 9, with Bouchard landing behind nine other blueliners. The list placed Cale Makar first, followed by Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin and Miro Heiskanen.<\/p>\n

Lane Hutson, Matthew Schaefer, Jake Sanderson and Moritz Seider also ranked ahead of Bouchard. That placement did not sit well with Oilers Nation analyst Liam Horrobin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Lane Hutson is a great defenseman,\u201d Horrobin said on the \u201cOilers Nation Everyday\u201d podcast. \u201cI think Schaefer, Sanderson, all awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Oilers face \u2018near-certainty\u2019 of forward injuries as veteran group ages<\/a><\/p>\n

However, Horrobin questioned whether Bouchard\u2019s reputation influenced the ranking more than his production. The Oilers defenseman produced numbers that none of those NHL blueliners matched last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to come with a bit of a reputation of like, what did Evan Bouchard do this season?\u201d Horrobin said.<\/p>\n

Evan Bouchard\u2019s production makes the ranking difficult to defend<\/p>\n

\"NHL:Sunrise, Florida, USA; Edmonton Oilers players, including captain Connor McDavid (97), with defenseman Evan Bouchard (2) at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Bouchard led NHL defensemen with 74 assists and 95 points across 82 games. He scored 21 goals and finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting.<\/p>\n

His 95 points marked the third-highest single-season total by an NHL defenseman since 2000. Only Erik Karlsson and Roman Josi previously reached that mark.<\/p>\n

Horrobin says those numbers should have carried greater weight. \u201cIt\u2019s like, well, he\u2019s got close to 100 points,\u201d he said. \u201cThat has to mean something more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The analyst added that he would have ranked Bouchard \u201cat least sixth\u201d on the list. His argument has merit, especially when comparing Bouchard\u2019s output with several players ranked ahead.<\/p>\n

Bouchard also posted a plus-29 even-strength goal differential, showing his offensive impact did not completely come at the expense of defensive results.<\/p>\n

MORE: Oilers GM Stan Bowman hints at midseason moves with $4.7M cap space<\/a><\/p>\n

The ranking remains subjective, but Bouchard\u2019s 95-point season gives Edmonton a strong case for a higher spot. His production places him among the NHL\u2019s elite defensemen, regardless of where the list ranks him.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter\u00a0<\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evan Bouchard\u2019s No. 10 ranking among the NHL\u2019s top defensemen has raised eyebrows around the Edmonton Oilers. NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,453,448,82,6998],"class_list":["post-855497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-sports-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}