The Oilers’ offseason is barely underway, and I already have plenty to yell about. Between Evan Bouchard’s Norris snub, Connor McDavid’s Hart case, and a summer that could be built around trades, there’s no shortage of nonsense to talk about. So let’s dump out the random thoughts rolling around in my brain and enjoy the delicious contents together.

THE EVAN BOUCHARD SNUB

Evan Bouchard not being named a Norris Trophy finalist is the kind of thing that makes me wonder how many voters are actually watching the games versus how many are building their ballots from mistakes that rip around on Twitter. Because if we’re talking about the actual season, Bouchard had a better statistical year than all three of Cale Makar, Zach Werenski, and Rasmus Dahlin, finishing with 21 goals and 95 points in 82 games while leading all NHL defencemen by a mile. Bouch had 14 more points than Werenski, who finished second among d-men, and was a major driver in how the Oilers even made the playoffs in the first place. Columbus didn’t. Yet it’s one of those things that used to matter years ago that doesn’t anymore… apparently. Is Dad the perfect defenceman? No. But there’s little doubt that he’s elite at what he does, and I think he should have been recognized for the things he does way better than everyone else. He produces offence at a ridiculous level, drives play, moves the puck, runs the power play, and spends a ton of his night tilted toward the fun end of the rink.

And listen, I’m not pretending Bouchard is Bobby Orr here or anything. The mistakes he makes are often glaring, and when they do happen, they tend to stick out because of the way he plays and how much he has the puck. But for anyone who wants to clutch their pearls about the defensive side of his game, his 26 rating was excellent, which reminds me of Erik Karlsson winning the Norris with a minus-26 rating........

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