If Evan Bouchard plays for this team I'm cheering for everyone else. Dude can't play defense

Ridiculous to play Bedard at centre and put McJesus on the wing🤦🏻; come on 😕

lol it was to put crosby mac and mcdavid tgt relax

putting him with doughty would work but he is a great offensive threat

His defensive stats are miles better than Dobson's, for instance.

Bouchard v Dobson, 5v5 on-ice rates
He's clearly one of the best defensemen in the league right now, let alone one of the best Canadian defenseman.

I don't think Bouchard should sniff this team especially since he won't be on PP1

Kadri won't be on this team and Theodore and Pietrangelo will.

Bouchard won't be there either.

Says the biased Oilers fan. 🙄

Looking at 5v5 "against" metrics:

CA/60
Bouchard: 47.15 **
Doughty: 53.02
Toews: 55.12
Morrissey: 56.91
Makar: 57.84
Dobson: 64.51

SA/60
Bouchard: 24.55 **
Doughty: 24.77
Toews: 27.75
Makar: 29.24
Morrissey: 29.78
Dobson: 31.37

xGA/60
Toews: 2.21
Bouchard: 2.26 **
Doughty: 2.28
Makar: 2.36
Morrissey: 2.55
Dobson: 2.65

SCA/60
Bouchard: 23.02 **
Toews: 23.86
Doughty: 24.73
Makar: 25.05
Morrissey: 25.75
Dobson: 30.06

HDCA/60
Bouchard: 9.27 **
Doughty: 9.67
Toews: 9.83
Makar: 9.98
Dobson: 11.71
Morrissey: 11.91

Of the 6 defensemen, Bouchard leads all defensive categories but one.

There is a defenseman who looks like he doesn't belong here, but it's not Evan Bouchard.

The numbers aren't biased. But your opinion clearly is.

Actually, it's ridiculous that Bedard is on the team at all. And to put him as 2C? WOOF.

You know these are not individual stats, right? It's super easy to have fewer shots and whatnot when McDrai and friends always have the puck at the other end.

Are you ****ing serious? Do you know who Cale Makar is - and who he plays with?

Or are you saying McDavid / Draisaitl should win the Selke?

Uhhh... what? It's like you did not read anything I said. Put away the odd strawmen and give it another go.

- Analytics are not individual stats.
- Spending less time in your own zone is going to boost your analytics.
- Having forwards who keep the puck down at the other end a lot allows one to spend less time in the D zone.

Nobody said anything about Selkes or Makar or whatever. And no amount of analytics is going to make Bouchard the current best of those six Dmen or analytics into anything more than auxiliary context providers. Obviously.

I'd never want to agree with your spot picked "stats."

Spot picked? I posted a link to every single on-ice stat available.

Now we see who is biased.

On-ice stats are not individual, but they are still the product of the players on the ice. So you saying that Bouchard's sparkling defensive metrics are just because he plays with McDavid, and then turning around and denying that McDavid should get credit is a logical fallacy.

The fact is that the Oilers are the best team in the league when Bouchard is on the ice. Sure he doesn't get all the credit, but he's certainly part of it. Here's how you can know that: by looking at his results with and without McDavid.

CF%
Together: 62.36
w/o McDavid: 56.96
w/o Bouchard: 55.15
w/o either: 51.44

SF%
Together: 62.08
w/o McDavid: 57.91
w/o Bouchard: 55.39
w/o either: 50.51

xGF%
Together: 65.03
w/o McDavid: 57.00
w/o Bouchard: 57.57
w/o either: 52.51

SCF%
Together: 64.23
w/o McDavid: 58.03
w/o Bouchard: 56.84
w/o either: 52.01

HDCF%
Together: 67.16
w/o McDavid: 58.79
w/o Bouchard: 63.35
w/o either: 54.60

Bouchard is full value for his on-ice results, with or without McDavid.

Let's do the same for Makar, shall we?

CF%
Together: 55.95
w/o MacKinnon: 46.64
w/o Makar: 56.98
w/o either: 51.07

SF%
Together: 55.23
w/o MacKinnon: 48.01
w/o Makar: 57.51
w/o either: 51.04

xGF%
Together: 56.10
w/o MacKinnon: 48.10
w/o Makar: 58.61
w/o either: 49.38

SCF%
Together: 58.36
w/o MacKinnon: 48.54
w/o Makar: 61.16
w/o either: 51.61

HDCF%
Together: 57.70
w/o MacKinnon: 47.79
w/o Makar: 61.06
w/o either: 51.26

Wow, we can see who is driving the bus in Colorado, and it's certainly not Makar. He can't even break even w/o MacKinnon, and yet he's considered a lock to be a Norris finalist.

1 - No, I did not say anything like that. And the credit I gave to McD is related to gaining and maintaining O zone time, which by the law of there's only one puck on the ice equates to less time spent in the D zone. I'm not even sure why he has to be a Selke candidate to be great at piling up O zone time.

2 - Except nobody said he should not get some credit. They said hey, let's not get crazy with the credit and add some perspective. Those are two different animals.

3 - Heh. Okay, man. You've conflated so much stuff that I don't even know how this relates to the original topic. And I've seen far too much of Makar to bother arguing over his play driving acumen. That's just kooky.

And just FYI...
Makar v Bouchard
1.33 Giveaways/60 2.49
2.23 Takeaways/60 1.67
1.19 Hits/60 2.11
4.39 Shot Blocks/60 3.49
0.76 D Zone Giveways/60 1.52

He's being carried by MacKinnon.

Oh, man. Thanks for that. It's always good to chuckle.