Evan Bouchard finished the 2025-26 season with more points than any defenseman in the NHL and a plus-25 rating, and was left off the Norris Trophy ballot entirely. Connor McDavid was asked about it ahead of the Edmonton Oilers‘ meeting with Calgary and didn’t soften it.
“He got off to a bad start, no question. Our whole team did. I did. Everyone did here in Edmonton,” McDavid said. “But he is a special player. Makes great plays with the puck. Nobody sees the game better than he does. Plays a lot of minutes. Plays on the kill. Does everything that’s asked of him.”
Then he went further than most teammates would.
“So as I said, he shouldn’t have been a finalist. He should have won.”
Evan Bouchard’s 2025-26 season:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Goals | 21 |
| Assists | 74 |
| Points | 95 |
| Plus-minus | +25 |
How many points did Evan Bouchard score last season?
Nobody playing his position managed more, and he got there having spent the opening months of the year playing badly, exactly as McDavid described. Edmonton as a whole took most of that autumn to find itself. By the time Bouchard’s form turned and the 95 points started piling up, the impression voters had formed appears to have already set.
The argument is being made all over again this year, from a stronger position. Bouchard currently leads all defensemen in scoring and sits tied for fourth in the league overall, with the Oilers at 8-1-1 and McDavid producing at a rate nobody has matched since the 1980s.
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What has changed about Bouchard is the half of the game he used to get criticized for. He arrived with a reputation as an offensively gifted defenseman who couldn’t be trusted without the puck, and has spent the last two seasons dismantling it. Against Detroit this month he was paired with Shakir Mukhamadullin and carried the younger man through the game without his own numbers suffering.
Whether McDavid is right or simply loyal is the question worth arguing about. He is, after all, the player who benefits most from having Bouchard behind him.
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