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But while Bouchard’s omission may not be surprising, it provides a stinging rebuke of his performance thus far in 2025-26: Three weeks is a pretty small sample size, and yet, Bouchard has made such a terrible impression in such a short span of time that he suddenly finds himself off Canada’s projected roster. Bouchard Has Been a Disaster on Defence Defensively, Bouchard has been an absolute dumpster fire. He’s already guilty of more misplays and breakdowns than most elite blueliners will commit in an entire season. There was the time he was the last man back, bringing the puck up ice, and attempted to dangle around an opposing player at centre ice, only to be stripped of it by a forward who skated in all alone and scored on Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner. Then there was the time during an Edmonton power play that he left his man, allowing one of the defending players to spring a wide-open teammate on a breakaway that resulted in a goal on Skinner. And there was the time when the Oilers were pressing for a tying goal with Skinner pulled for the extra attacker, that Bouchard missed his check, resulting in the opposition getting the puck out of their zone and scoring an empty net goal. And that was all in just one game. Bouchard has never been known as a great defender. In fact, he’s got a reputation for this kind of stuff. While he’s shown at times that he can play strong defensively, Bouchard never goes long without making the kind of gaffe that leads to facepalm emojis being texted among Oilers fans. Bouchard Not Producing at Normal Rate The thing with Bouchard, however, is that he’s such an incredible offensive talent that his defensive deficiencies can be forgiven as long as he’s producing at the other end of the rink. But he’s not been doing that so far in 2025-26. Before having his best statistical game of 2025-26 on Tuesday, when he picked up three assists and finished with a plus/minus rating of plus-3 in Edmonton’s 6-3 home win over the Utah Mammoth, Bouchard had totalled just four points while registering a minus-9 rating over the first 10 games of the season. Those numbers represented a significant decline for the blueliner, who over 2023-24 and 2024-25 averaged 0.91 points per game in the regular season and 1.17 points per game in the playoffs. Could Bouchard’s effort against the Mammoth be a sign that he’s starting to turn things around? After going pointless over Edmonton’s opening six contests, he is on a five-game point streak, although Tuesday was his first multi-point performance of 2025-26. Bouchard Can Still Make Team Canada If Bouchard played himself out of a place on the Olympic roster so quickly, then theoretically he could play himself back on to Team Canada in short order, too. NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger acknowledged that the Oilers’ rearguard is still very much in the conversation, writing, “the most debatable omission here could be Evan Bouchard of the Oilers and his signature Bouch Bomb slap shot from the point. Truth be told, he had a rough start to the season, when defensive deficiencies were magnified.” This next stretch will be pivotal for Bouchard if he is to have any chance of going to Italy in February. He will have ample opportunity to make an impression, as Edmonton plays 13 games in the next 24 days, beginning Thursday (Oct. 30) when the Oilers host the New York Rangers at Rogers Place.
