Depending on who you ask, Evan Bouchard and Noah Dobson are either great or awful. They are great two-way players that take their defenses and rosters altogether to the next level! Both are liabilities on the defensive end of the ice! Bouchard and Dobson are great skating defensemen with a lot of skill! They are always out of position and have no hockey sense! Two-way defensemen! They aren’t defensemen, they’re forwards!
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The numbers, both basic and advanced, suggest both are great. Dobson’s had 46 goals and 172 assists since joining the NHL while contributing 22.4 defensive point shares. Bouchard has 54 goals and 169 assists with 22.2 defensive point shares. The common response to this is to “watch the games,” and if you do, you’ll see both skaters are on the ice a lot, putting them in the spotlight, and while they’d had their struggles, they are often the two players leading their teams to victories.
There’s no way around it. Bouchard and Dobson are polarizing defensemen, and Dobson particularly, has taken a lot of heat this season in a season where he’s battled injuries and taken a step back. Both are the lightning rods for their team’s struggles and the catalysts for their success. They also are both young and restricted free agents (RFAs) after this season. The question is how the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Islanders fanbases, at least a significant segment of it, fell out of favor with defensemen who have displayed high upside, two skaters who entered the league as difference-makers yet have uncertain futures with their teams.
Dobson Being Good, Not Great
Dobson’s skill on the offensive end of the ice is good, but not good enough to make up for his play on the defensive end of the ice. Sure, he’s one of the best defensemen on the Islanders, as a great skater who creates turnovers and turns them into scoring chances the other way. However, he’s not the shot blocker or hard hitter that Islanders fans have grown accustomed to in recent years.
Dobson can score when he has an open look from the point, yet he rarely drives the offense. It explains why his career-high in goals is 13, coming in 2021-22 and 2022-23. If he was a defenseman who could carry the offense and create goals where there otherwise wouldn’t be any, the Islanders would be fine. He’s not that type of player.
Ultimately, it makes Dobson a frustrating player to root for. He was a homegrown prospect who came up through the system with high expectations. It was understandable for him to play alongside a veteran, whether it was Andy Greene or Zdeno Chara, early in his career as they could compensate for his growing pains, but he’s entering his prime years, and the reality is he’s good but nothing special. He came into the league at a time when Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, and Adam Fox did, but he’s not the same type of defenseman.
Bouchard Leaves Fans Wondering What Could Have Been
Bouchard by all means is a key part of the Oilers and was one of the primary reasons they made a deep playoff run last season. The thing is, he wasn’t the only reason the Oilers made that playoff run. They did it with elite talent in the forward unit and a defense that had three great pairings. Bouchard was good but couldn’t do it alone.
Then the offseason came along and the Oilers didn’t re-sign Philip Broberg while also trading away Cody Ceci. The message from the front office was clear. They put their trust in Bouchard as the defenseman who could carry the unit. He’s already shown he can be a top-pair option, and without depth, he would be asked to do more.
Bouchard can only do so much by himself. The Oilers, certainly the fanbase, are seeing what Broberg has done with the St. Louis Blues and doing so on an affordable contract. If Broberg and Cecy were on the defense, and Bouchard was traded in the offseason, would this team be better? There’s no way to know, but that question is enough to turn the 25-year-old defenseman into a scapegoat.
Is Bouchard great? Yes. Is he good enough to carry the defense? No. Should the Oilers pay him whatever he asks for in the offseason or trade him in the summer to a team willing to pay him (and teams like the Chicago Blackhawks will)? That’s up for debate.
What the Future Holds For Bouchard & Dobson
Both the Islanders and Oilers must figure out how they’ll navigate the salary cap. The cap is going up in each of the next three seasons, but it doesn’t give them flexibility to keep their young defensemen, per se. Also, since both are RFAs, a team could throw a ton of money at them, just like the offer sheets last season to Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
The Oilers must keep Connor McDavid’s contract in mind. He’s a free agent after next season and will be the highest-paid player in the NHL. His contract will force the Oilers to work around his contract and Leon Draisaitl’s megadeal that takes effect next season. Extending Bouchard puts them in a tight cap situation and to make matters worse, they don’t have other defensemen to turn to to carry the weight. Mattias Ekholm, the stay-at-home defenseman, is 34, and when his contract is up, he’ll be too old to sign long-term. Otherwise, the team is staring at an older Darnell Nurse, Brett Kulak, and an unknown in Jake Walman (who is a free agent after the season).
The Islanders, meanwhile, have to figure out what their core looks like for the future and a possible retool. It’s Bo Horvat, Mathew Barzal, and Ilya Sorokin, but who are the defensemen to build around? Alexander Romanov is an RFA as well, so the Islanders can pay both him and Dobson, but if they have to choose one, it will probably be Romanov, who is the better skater on the defensive end of the ice.
Both Bouchard and Dobson are finishing pivotal seasons in their career, and it will determine if they are a part of their team’s long-term plans or not. Do you think Bouchard and Dobson will remain part of the Oilers and Islanders’ long-term plans? Let us know in the comments section below!
