With so much attention on significant contracts for Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, it&#8217;s almost been easy to forget that <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/13/despite-risks-oilers-should-sign-evan-bouchard-long-term-contract/">Evan Bouchard</a> is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

He&#8217;s in the final year of a two-year, $3.9-million AAV deal he signed after his entry-level contract, and it&#8217;s safe to say he&#8217;s more than exceeded the expectations of that contract. Between last year and this, Bouchard has racked up 137 points, the second most among defencemen over that time, putting up 31 goals and 106 assists.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2107" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="325"></div>
When Washington Capitals defenceman <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/25/jakob-chychruns-72-million-extension-helps-set-the-baseline-for-evan-bouchards-next-contract/">Jakob Chychrun signed</a> an eight-year, $9-million AAV deal on Tuesday, it&#8217;s easy to look at it and think it could be <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/25/how-young-defencemen-market-impact-evan-bouchards-next-contract/">a comparable deal</a> for the Oilers No. 1 defenceman.
But Sportsnet&#8217;s Mark Spector cooled water on that idea during a Tuesday appearance on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oziZoAVX0zVKpdgpiWRhc?si=nmsTX45rTvqNZ8r7lJRy-g">The Jason Gregor Show</a>, suggesting that Bouchard&#8217;s worth even more money than that.
<blockquote>Gregor: Do you think Chychrun has any impact at all on Bouchard&#8217;s contract?
Spector: Oh, for sure. Bouchard should get more. How about that? In today&#8217;s world, Jason, most of the defenceman metrics, like a lion&#8217;s share, has to do with their offensive play&#8230; Defencemen today are quantified largely on offensive numbers, and Bouchard&#8217;s offensive numbers are awesome. The only hole anyone finds in his game is defensively&#8230;. He&#8217;s as good of an offensive defenceman as there is in the sport, so if Chychrun gets 9, if I&#8217;m (Bouchard&#8217;s) agent, I want to get 10 or 11 (million), don&#8217;t you?
&#8230;
How many (defencemen) have 140 points in the league over the last two regular seasons?&#8230; The very best guys — that&#8217;s who has 140 points, so that means if I&#8217;m his agent, I want to get paid like one of the very best guys. It&#8217;s a good problem to have when you got players who are in that echelon. The problem, sure, you got to pay him, you got to figure it out. But I&#8217;ll tell you what, if the Oilers don&#8217;t want to pay him, there&#8217;s 30 other teams or whatever the number is that would love to pay Evan Bouchard.</blockquote>
Defencemen like Bouchard don&#8217;t get traded often. The most recent offensive defenceman I can think of getting moved around the age Bouchard is is Dougie Hamilton, who was traded twice by the point in which Bouchard is at in his career. The second deal saw him head from the Calgary Flames to the Carolina Hurricanes, along with Michael Ferland and Adam Fox, for defenceman Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm.
While both coming back served as solid Flames, neither had the type of punch that Hamilton, or Fox for that matter, have had offensively. It&#8217;s a definite risk, and so too is the idea of signing Bouchard to a bridge contract.
<blockquote>Spector: The only possibility is if he doesn&#8217;t have a great playoff, they may decide to do a bride because the player&#8217;s side says &#8216;I didn&#8217;t love my regular season, and I didn&#8217;t love my playoffs, so I don&#8217;t want to sign long-term.&#8217; But other than that, I think we all know what Bouchard is. I think, personally, the hiccups in his game — he can overcome them. The defensive miscues aren&#8217;t based on skill or speed, I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s intensity or awareness or whatever it is. Being a veteran guy, he&#8217;ll learn all of that. I think there&#8217;s a hell of a player here, and if I&#8217;m the Oilers, let&#8217;s just wrap this guy up and have him on our team. Am I going to go out and find a better guy? Is that what I&#8217;m going to do? I doubt it.
&#8230;.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Gregor: People will remember more the mistakes a player makes rather than the right plays a player makes. And as a great scout always told me, when you start focusing on all the things a player doesn&#8217;t do, you overlook and miss all the things they do do, and I think at times that happens with Bouchard.
Spector: That defines Bouchard. It&#8217;s easy to find the glaring defensive mistake, and I&#8217;m guilty. Particularly in a 2-1 game and he makes that mistake and it&#8217;s 2-2 or 3-1, whatever, it&#8217;s easy to say that. I&#8217;m guilty sometimes myself, but big picture, I&#8217;m here to tell ya I&#8217;m looking down at this plaeyr from 30,000 feet. He&#8217;s a &#8216;sign this guy, keep this guy, they don&#8217;t grow on trees, everyone else would take him if you don&#8217;t want him, don&#8217;t be stupid here&#8217;. Get this player under wraps.</blockquote>
Time will tell what the final number will come in at for <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/02/26/he-takes-too-much-criticism-oilers-gm-stan-bowman-comes-to-the-defence-of-evan-bouchard/">Bouchard</a>, but there&#8217;s no denying his new deal will be massive. <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oziZoAVX0zVKpdgpiWRhc?si=nmsTX45rTvqNZ8r7lJRy-g">The list</a> of the highest paid right-shot defencemen in the NHL is loaded with guys years into their deals.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-172265" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image-50-1024x509.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="509" srcset="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image-50-1024x509.jpg 1024w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image-50-300x149.jpg 300w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image-50-768x382.jpg 768w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image-50.jpg 1260w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
What dollar figure do you think Bouchard&#8217;s next deal will come in at?
<hr />
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
<hr />
<h2>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</h2>
<div class="bam-inline-promotion" data-property-id="325" data-promotion-id="19111" data-context="web-content-promocard"></div>

With so much attention on significant contracts for Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, it's almost been easy to forget that <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/13/despite-risks-oilers-should-sign-evan-bouchard-long-term-contract/">Evan Bouchard</a> is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights.



He's in the final year of a two-year, $3.9-million AAV deal he signed after his entry-level contract, and it's safe to say he's more than exceeded the expectations of that contract. Between last year and this, Bouchard has racked up 137 points, the second most among defencemen over that time, putting up 31 goals and 106 assists.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2107" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="325"></div>
When Washington Capitals defenceman <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/25/jakob-chychruns-72-million-extension-helps-set-the-baseline-for-evan-bouchards-next-contract/">Jakob Chychrun signed</a> an eight-year, $9-million AAV deal on Tuesday, it's easy to look at it and think it could be <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/03/25/how-young-defencemen-market-impact-evan-bouchards-next-contract/">a comparable deal</a> for the Oilers No. 1 defenceman.

But Sportsnet's Mark Spector cooled water on that idea during a Tuesday appearance on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oziZoAVX0zVKpdgpiWRhc?si=nmsTX45rTvqNZ8r7lJRy-g">The Jason Gregor Show</a>, suggesting that Bouchard's worth even more money than that.
<blockquote>Gregor: Do you think Chychrun has any impact at all on Bouchard's contract?

Spector: Oh, for sure. Bouchard should get more. How about that? In today's world, Jason, most of the defenceman metrics, like a lion's share, has to do with their offensive play... Defencemen today are quantified largely on offensive numbers, and Bouchard's offensive numbers are awesome. The only hole anyone finds in his game is defensively.... He's as good of an offensive defenceman as there is in the sport, so if Chychrun gets 9, if I'm (Bouchard's) agent, I want to get 10 or 11 (million), don't you?

...

How many (defencemen) have 140 points in the league over the last two regular seasons?... The very best guys — that's who has 140 points, so that means if I'm his agent, I want to get paid like one of the very best guys. It's a good problem to have when you got players who are in that echelon. The problem, sure, you got to pay him, you got to figure it out. But I'll tell you what, if the Oilers don't want to pay him, there's 30 other teams or whatever the number is that would love to pay Evan Bouchard.</blockquote>
Defencemen like Bouchard don't get traded often. The most recent offensive defenceman I can think of getting moved around the age Bouchard is is Dougie Hamilton, who was traded twice by the point in which Bouchard is at in his career. The second deal saw him head from the Calgary Flames to the Carolina Hurricanes, along with Michael Ferland and Adam Fox, for defenceman Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm.

While both coming back served as solid Flames, neither had the type of punch that Hamilton, or Fox for that matter, have had offensively. It's a definite risk, and so too is the idea of signing Bouchard to a bridge contract.
<blockquote>Spector: The only possibility is if he doesn't have a great playoff, they may decide to do a bride because the player's side says 'I didn't love my regular season, and I didn't love my playoffs, so I don't want to sign long-term.' But other than that, I think we all know what Bouchard is. I think, personally, the hiccups in his game — he can overcome them. The defensive miscues aren't based on skill or speed, I don't know if it's intensity or awareness or whatever it is. Being a veteran guy, he'll learn all of that. I think there's a hell of a player here, and if I'm the Oilers, let's just wrap this guy up and have him on our team. Am I going to go out and find a better guy? Is that what I'm going to do? I doubt it.

....</blockquote>
<blockquote>Gregor: People will remember more the mistakes a player makes rather than the right plays a player makes. And as a great scout always told me, when you start focusing on all the things a player doesn't do, you overlook and miss all the things they do do, and I think at times that happens with Bouchard.

Spector: That defines Bouchard. It's easy to find the glaring defensive mistake, and I'm guilty. Particularly in a 2-1 game and he makes that mistake and it's 2-2 or 3-1, whatever, it's easy to say that. I'm guilty sometimes myself, but big picture, I'm here to tell ya I'm looking down at this plaeyr from 30,000 feet. He's a 'sign this guy, keep this guy, they don't grow on trees, everyone else would take him if you don't want him, don't be stupid here'. Get this player under wraps.</blockquote>
Time will tell what the final number will come in at for <a href="https://oilersnation.com/2025/02/26/he-takes-too-much-criticism-oilers-gm-stan-bowman-comes-to-the-defence-of-evan-bouchard/">Bouchard</a>, but there's no denying his new deal will be massive. <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oziZoAVX0zVKpdgpiWRhc?si=nmsTX45rTvqNZ8r7lJRy-g">The list</a> of the highest paid right-shot defencemen in the NHL is loaded with guys years into their deals.

<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-172265" src="http://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image-50-1024x509.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="509" />

What dollar figure do you think Bouchard's next deal will come in at?

<hr />

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QX_QCiZyIo&amp;list=PLRSWOpthKmdtmFOKQDd7TQdTU2KSKXYvX">DFO DFS Report</a>. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at <a href="http://www.x.com/zjlaing">@zjlaing</a>, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

<hr />

<h2>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</h2>
<div class="bam-inline-promotion" data-property-id="325" data-promotion-id="19111" data-context="web-content-promocard"></div>

‘Bouchard should get more’: Oilers scribe sees pending RFA’s next contract besting Chychrun’s extension

Recent articles from Zach Laing

Breaking News