The Oilers have a major decision to make with one of their most talented but error-prone defenders — does Kris Knoblauch keep trusting Evan Bouchard, or is it time to send a message?
The Edmonton Oilers’ 3–2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday dropped their record to 4-4-1, a mediocre start for a team with Stanley Cup expectations. At five-on-five, the Oilers again looked flat — and once more, while he scored a goal, Evan Bouchard was at the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.
A pair of costly blunders by Bouchard led directly to Seattle goals in transition, and while he finished the night with heavy minutes as usual, the question head coach Kris Knoblauch has to be asking right now is, 'What needs to be done to stop these repeated mistakes?'
It's fair to argue the Oilers have little choice but to lean heavily on Bouchard. It's also fair to say that there's a much bigger-picture problem at play here.
Same Mistakes, Same Results
The hope is that his goal opens the offensive floodgates. However, Saturday night's mistake-prone showing from Bouchard wasn’t a one-off. Through nine games, Bouchard has developed a pattern of dangerous turnovers and poor pinches that have resulted in goals against. It’s the same issue that has cropped up throughout his career — and one that seems to return whenever the Oilers hit a stretch of inconsistent play.
As Ryan Rishaug of TSN and the Got Yer' Back podcast put it after the game, “At a certain point, something has got to change… you can’t just keep playing him through it.” While Bouchard’s offensive instincts are elite at times -- particularly in the playoffs -- his defensive reads and situational awareness continue to hurt the team at even strength.
This is a different player early in each regular season he plays and Jason Strudwick argued Bouchard has been showing the same tendencies throughout his entire NHL career.
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The Oilers are Facing a Real Bouchard Dilemma
Knoblauch faces a difficult choice: bench Bouchard to send a message, or let him play through his struggles in hopes he’ll settle down. Strudwick defended Bouchard, suggesting that all of the team's top defensemen haven't been at their best. Rishaug countered that none of them are making the same 10-bell mistakes Bouchard is.
What's unfortunate is that the Oilers’ blue line doesn’t offer many internal replacements for his minutes. Even with Mattias Ekholm beside him, the pair has struggled so badly to find a rhythm that Knoblauch split them up in the second period, pairing Bouchard with Brett Kulak for several shifts.
Perhaps that sent a mild message, but many argue it wasn’t enough. “He’s been making the same mistakes over and over again,” Rishaug persisted. “If you don’t sit him down now, when will you?”
Knoblauch has to decide when enough is enough. Sitting him could send the message that clearly isn't getting through. At the same time, it might only make him press harder, creating a compounding effect of more mistakes. All the while, he's starting to show up offensively, and the Oilers need his puck-moving ability and right-handed shot — especially on the power play.
What Will Actually Work?
The truth is, no approach has yet succeeded in permanently eliminating Bouchard’s costly errors. Past coaches haven't been able to shake his early mistakes, and Knoblauch hasn't either. To date, everyone has just sort of learned to live with them. None has taken a really hard stance, and it might be time to do so.
Bouchard isn’t the only Oilers defenseman struggling, but he's the one who is expected the most from. Now making $10.5 million per season, he's being paid to eliminate this tendency, but it seems to have gotten worse.
The trick might be to make this less about punishment and more about accountability. Start by sitting him for 10 minutes. If that doesn't work, sit him for a full period. If he still doesn't get it, put him in the press box for a game. It hurts the Oilers in the short term, but it sends a message in the long term. A line needs to be drawn, and the rest of the team needs to know that no one is above being sat.
The Oilers can’t afford to keep dropping winnable games because of the same breakdowns. If Knoblauch wants his team to play like the top defensive core that experts and analysts suggested this team was during the summer, he'll need to get them back on track.
Bouchard’s talent is undeniable, and when he’s on, he looks like a future Norris candidate. But until he learns to balance his offensive gifts with consistent defensive discipline, Edmonton is going to give up goals and pile up the losses.
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