Bouchard's mentorship under Keith helping Oilers playoff pursuit

Evan Bouchard is getting a fast-track NHL education under the mentorship of his Edmonton Oilers defense partner, Duncan Keith.

The 22-year-old is in his first season as a regular after being on the taxi squad most of last season. Keith is a decorated veteran who won the Stanley Cup three times for the Chicago Blackhawks (2010, 2013, 2015) and awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2015. He was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players (https://www.nhl.com/fans/nhl-centennial/100-greatest-nhl-players/) during the NHL Centennial celebration in 2017.
"He's really easy to talk to, really easy going," Bouchard said. "In the game, he is an intense person, and he wants to be a perfectionist, kind of, and I think that's what's kept him around, what's made him great for so many years."
Bouchard's introduction to the lineup is a key piece to the ongoing draft-and-develop upgrades the Oilers envision. Acquiring Keith in a trade with the Blackhawks on July 12, 2021 was intended to benefit the entire roster with a Stanley Cup champion's experience and savvy. Paired with Keith for most of the season, Bouchard is getting the most hands-on support.
"A huge thing is communication," Bouchard said. "After every shift and between periods, he's always wanting to help me help us as a pair. It's big. On some plays, he'll look it over [on video] by himself first before talking to me, and then make some comments and that really helps me grow as a person and it helps us as a pair. That's the biggest thing with him.
"When he's sees things, and he's been through it all, he knows the best parts to talk to me about."
Keith has scored 19 points (one goal, 18 assists) in 58 games this season and 644 points (106 goals, 538 assists) in 1,250 games over 17 NHL seasons. The 38-year-old said Bouchard's offensive abilities, puck-moving skills and intelligent approach to the game is making his own job easier. The more difficult part, without the puck, is getting the most attention.

"Just in general, we try to communicate a lot about the defensive side of things, whether that's getting back for pucks or having a good gap," Keith said. "Just focusing on things like predictability in the defensive side of things and with his offensive ability, it can kind of come from being good defensively.
"We all [work on it], not just him. Just continuing to develop good habits and that predictability on the defensive side of things. He just seems like he's getting better and better."
Bouchard's offensive abilities were a big reason the Oilers selected him with the No. 10 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. He scored 140 points (41 goals, 99 assists) in 112 games over his final two seasons for London of the Ontario Hockey League (2017-19).
This season, Bouchard's first as an NHL regular, he's scored 38 points (10 goals, 28 assists) in 75 games while averaging of 19:49 ice time per game. He's third on the Oilers (minimum 40 games) in SAT percentage (55.7 percent) behind Jesse Puljujarvi (58.8 percent) and Connor McDavid (56.9 percent).

"I think right from Day One, we've seen he's someone who can make a first pass, he's somebody that gets his shot through from the point," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "The top players always want to play with him because he puts it on their tape. I think he's put a lot of work in here in the last couple of months on trying to work on the defensive details of his game and we're seeing some improvement there as well."
McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have each been a positive influence. The Oilers captain leads the NHL with 108 points (42 goals, 68 assists) in 75 games and Draisaitl is third (105 points; 54 goals, 51 assists in 75 games).
"[They're] better than you see on TV," Bouchard said. "It's crazy the little things, the little details they do, whether in practice or a game. It's those little things you'd think can't happen and they make them happen. They make plays out of nothing and it's what made them the top two players in the League for a number of years now. They're even better in person."
One element of his game Bouchard continues to work at is the combination of intensity and urgency, something critics frequently point to as one of his shortcomings.
"It's a fine line," he said. "I think everyone shows urgency in a different way and that's what helped me, that (Oilers assistant and retired NHL defenseman) Dave Manson has coached me before and he knows my sense of urgency is different than someone else's sense of urgency and that's a big part of understanding your players."
Bouchard also discovered that other intangibles are becoming more important closer to the playoffs with the Oilers (44-26-6) second in the Pacific Division. four points ahead of the third-place Los Angeles Kings. One is taking care of his body on and off the ice, a challenge with the length and rigors of an 82-game regular season. The other is sometimes having a short memory.
"It's a big thing, to be able to forget about things, that if you have an off game, you have to forget about it because you have another game in a day or two, max," Bouchard said.