Edmonton's star player's high salary raises controversy
Photo credit: Sergei Belski - Imagn Images
In a heated episode of Spittin' Chiclets, the hosts discussed whether or not Oilers' Evan Bouchard's value holds without McDavid and Draisaitl on the ice with him.
"The reason he gets to have 80 points a year," Biz Nasty exclaimed, "is because of Connor McDavid. If you take him and Draisaitl away, Bouchard is maybe a 45-point, 50-points offensive defenseman...He's 30% of why that powerplay is good."
Analysts argue over Bouchard's $10.5M annual salary
Of course, at the heart of the discussion was Bouchard's $10.5M cap hit and whether the 1st-pairing D-man brings value as a defenseman for such a high AAV.
I'd love if the guy received less than $10.5M. They got crushed by fans and media when they lost Broberg and Holloway to offer sheets...Bouchard's coming up. There's noise that he's gonna get an offer sheet...Then all of a sudden, Carolina is telling Edmonton there is definitely a chance now that we could be signing Bouchard.
The Oilers had no choice whatsoever, but to, just to sign him. They had to sign him. I can't get mad at the number because he would have signed a bigger deal with Carolina.
- Paul 'Big Nasty' Bissonnette
The Oilers had no choice whatsoever, but to, just to sign him. They had to sign him. I can't get mad at the number because he would have signed a bigger deal with Carolina.
- Paul 'Big Nasty' Bissonnette
In an era where salaries don't always reflect a player's ranking in the league, GM's around the league face several complications when negotiating a salary. Production, however, is perhaps the best basis for determining a player's value.
Bouchard is one of the premier offensive-defencemen in the league. In the past two years, the 26-year-old D-man has scored 32G and 149 points in regular season games.
And it gets better. Over the past four playoffs, Bouchard recorded 20G and 81 points in 75 games. That is elite production by any standard. And in the past two postseasons, Evan has 13G and 55 points in 47 games.
Bouchard's 1.08 point-per-game in the playoffs over his career is the second-highest of all time, behind only Bobby Orr. I'd say he's in pretty good company, at any salary.
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