OverDrive - Bouchard on his season with the Oilers, the team's performance and Norris Trophy close miss

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Edmonton Oilers Defenceman Evan Bouchard joined OverDrive to discuss his impressive season with the Oilers, the viewpoint on not finishing as a Norris Trophy finalist, the skill set of his game, the Oilers' performance in the playoffs, the ability of all players stepping up next season, playing with Canada at the IIHF World Championships and more.

It has been an incredible year for Evan Bouchard, who now joins us on Overdrive. Evan, appreciate you joining us today. How you doing? Good. How are you guys doing? Thanks for having me. We're excellent. It's great to be able to chat with you. I know it would be your preference to still be playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But at what point, like how many days do you need to properly reflect on a year where at least individually you took your game to another level? Yeah, I guess you kind of never really do get over it.

You know, it's weird kind of having hockey done with with the Oilers start of May. I'm definitely not used to that. But, you know, you kind of got to take it to the grain of salt. Now you get a little more time to rest recover and get ready for a good one next year again. So, Evan, are you, you know, what goes through the process of you joining Team Canada and playing the World Championships as opposed to maybe take a little extra time to let the, you know, the body heal and all that type of stuff? Yeah, I mean, with Team Canada, it's always an honor when you get the ask.

And for me to have hockey over, like I said, early May is something that I'm not too familiar with. So to get the call from them to go play, I feel like it was a no-brainer and get a few more games with Team Canada. Switzerland's not a bad place to go. Let's be honest. There was maybe another place which would you be quite so anxious to jump on a plane? Yeah, exactly. definitely helps the decision for sure.

And what about you and Darnell? You guys are both going. Would you guys do it independently or did you talk about it after the season end it? We honestly didn't talk about it much. I got a message and I hopped on board. I think it was a day later, and she called me and asked what I was doing, what the plan was. I let him know and I think he made the decision pretty quickly to go as well. Well, it's great to have you as part of a team Canada roster that I know it hasn't officially been announced,

but has a ton of talent and looking forward to seeing you guys compete for a gold medal. There was some news today when it came to individual awards, and the finalist for the Norris Trophy have come up. And a lot of the talk is just on how there are some great defensemen who weren't part of the finalists, and just it was one of the deepest years for your position. You unfortunately did not make the cut, but I just wonder how much was that on your mind and how much is that a goal of yours each year

to be a part of the top three going for the Norris Trophy in your position? For sure. Yeah, when I saw that come out, it was definitely upset a little bit. But you can't really let that bother you. You don't really think about it too much during the season. You got a bigger picture team thing.

a team thing. So yeah, I didn't think about it too much until it came out today. Sting a little bit. But you know what? You get back at it and you forget about it. And like you said, there's a lot of great defense in the league, so it's kind of hard to pick between three of them.

So, Evan, your game has evolved over the years and, you know, when you look at it, you've never had the issue putting up the points because you've always been offensive, a great first pass, and a big shot from the point. But, you know, how have you worked at rounding out your game? to be a complete defender so that, you know, we talked about it in the 4 o'clock hour.

You're out on the penalty kill a lot, too. So you're being trusted in all different situations. Is it something that it's a conscious effort? Is working with Paul Coffey? Is it just through experience over the years? What have you been able to do to help round out your game? Yeah, I think it's definitely a conscious effort. And now it starts to come a little more naturally.

for me I'm not going to go run around be the big, heavy hard defensemen to usually play against. They try to do that with having a good stick, denying blue lines. I think little things like that the ways that I'm trying to especially evolve on the

defensive side of things. So you talk about evolving on the defensive side. Is it more like you try to copy other guys? Is that calm or the coaching stuff? Like, were you kind of stealing or mimicking these ideas from?

I think it's a lot of a lot of game film. You kind of watch yourself play and you can, you know, see little things if it's, you know, gapping up a little better at the offensive blue line to make things easier, denying the blue line, little things like that. Playing with the guy like Eki makes it a lot easier. You know, if I try to do something, make a mistake, he's usually there to cover up for me. So that helps too to give you confidence in the D-Zone.

Boyler's defenseman, Evan Bouchard, joining us on Overdrive. and when we always hear about the exit interviews, you know, it's the coach or it's the management team talking to the player and evaluating the year that they had. But when you're at the level that a player like you're at, I'm sure they want to get your thoughts as well. Give us your assessment of the situation right now with the Edmonton Oilers

and what you guys need to do to take that next step. Yeah, I think everyone's very much on the same page that of the disappointing year for everyone as a group. like I said, I just don't think we were, you know, a complete group, everyone on the same page. And I think everyone's aware that. I think everyone's really going to push to get back to where we were last season, a couple of seasons ago, to get back to getting the end goal, and that's getting to the cup finals and winning the cup this time. Now, how hard was it when you're in the playoffs and you're battling,

but then you also see Connor's injury, Leon's injury, Dickinson's injury, Henrique's injury, that's pretty much your four centermen right down the middle. I mean, it's a walking mash unit. Everybody plays hurt. We all know that. But at the end of the day, you know, was it just injuries?

And you mentioned inconsistencies that just you couldn't overcome against Anaheim. Yeah, that definitely doesn't help when you got four guys like that injured. But at the same time, it's, you know, time for other people to step up. You know, unfortunately for myself, I didn't do that. And I think there was other guys that, you know, could have stepped up a little more, too. But in the end, you know, we're a team. And when guys are hurt playing through injuries, you really have to find a way to step up. And, you know, a few of us didn't do that this series against Hannah-Im.

So you guys, you know, ran up a little short this year. The last two years were unbelievable for Oeders fans. So, you know, is there at a point here where, I know you're going to go play in the world champs and you just kind of relax, but is there a reflection on maybe, you know, what year one, two, kind of look like and as a group what you guys can maybe alter or adjust to kind of get back to where you want? Yeah, I think first and foremost is everyone getting healthy. You know, then after that, I think there's a few system changes we can do.

I think there's a, you know, a team, team aspect in the D zone, everyone playing together in the D zone. You know, with the Oilers, we, you know, we score enough goals to win. It's about keeping the puck out of our net. I think if we have a team first mindset, protecting the puck keeping out of our net, then it's, you know, things will go up for us. So what's your thought process now? You go play for Team Canada.

What's the break for you in the off season? Once you're done, do you take a week off? Do you take a couple weeks off, let the body heal up and right back at training? Or, you know, today's athletes are a lot different than me and strutty when we played. You know, we'd be drinking and smoking right until, August and then fire back on the way to camp yeah

I mean for me it was a like I said no brainer to go get a few more games in with Team Canada be back June 1st hopefully and take a few weeks off you know at least for now get to stay in the hockey mood that June 1st take a couple weeks off get back at it and get ready for camp in September Awesome stuff. Well, Evan, congratulations on a great season. We're looking forward to you,

suiting up for Team Canada and winning that world championship and ending your season on a high note. But we appreciate you joining us here on Overdrive and best of luck in Switzerland. No problem. Thanks for having me, guys. There you have it. Evan Bouchard, defenseman for the Evan Ebbetson Oilers. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind,

and now I've got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app.