Edmonton Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard was ranked the 40th-best player in the NHL right now by NHL Network, making him the first Edmonton player to appear in a preseason countdown that still has 30 places left to reveal.
Bouchard’s placement was unveiled Sunday and published Monday on NHL.com, in the sixth instalment of a nine-part series in which NHL Network researchers, producers and on-air personalities rank the top 50 players in the league. No Oilers appeared in the 50-through-41 group released Aug. 31.
The ranking follows a season in which Bouchard led all NHL defencemen in assists (74) and points (95) and was fifth among defencemen in goals (21) across 82 games, according to NHL.com. He was the third defenceman since 2000 to reach 95 points in a season, joining Erik Karlsson (101 in 2022-23) and Roman Josi (96 in 2021-22), and the first Edmonton defenceman to score that many since Paul Coffey had 138 in 1985-86. Bouchard, 26, finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting.
The overall placement sits well below where the same series slotted him among his own position group. In NHL Network’s top 20 defencemen list, released Aug. 10, Bouchard was ranked 10th, behind Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin, Miro Heiskanen, Lane Hutson, Matthew Schaefer, Jake Sanderson and Moritz Seider.
The two NHL.com entries do not agree on Bouchard’s defensive numbers. The Aug. 10 defencemen list credits him with a plus-29 even-strength goal differential last season, calling it the second best of his seven NHL seasons behind plus-37 in 2023-24. The Sept. 7 top-50 entry, otherwise close to identical in wording, gives those same two figures as plus-25 and plus-34. Neither article carries a correction, and NHL.com has not said which set is right. The rest of Bouchard’s statistical profile is stated identically in both.
Bouchard was the only defenceman among the 10 players announced Sunday. The others, in descending order, were Artemi Panarin of the Los Angeles Kings at No. 39, Anaheim Ducks centre Leo Carlsson at 38, Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle at 37, Stanley Cup winner Sebastian Aho of Carolina at 36, New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin at 35, Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele at 34 and 33, Toronto’s William Nylander at 32, and Montreal’s Cole Caufield, a 50-goal scorer last season and the reigning Lady Byng Trophy winner, at 31.
Two more Oilers are all but certain to appear before the countdown ends. Neither Connor McDavid nor Leon Draisaitl was named in either of the two groups revealed so far, which means both remain among the 30 players still to come. McDavid was one of the players named to NHL Network’s top 20 centres list published Aug. 24.
The rankings arrive with Edmonton close to opening training camp and three weeks from a regular season that begins earlier than usual. The Oilers will play four exhibition games, opening at home against the Winnipeg Jets on Sept. 19, visiting Winnipeg on Sept. 22 and Vancouver on Sept. 24, and closing at Rogers Place against the Calgary Flames on Sept. 26, according to the club’s published preseason schedule. Edmonton opens the regular season at home against the Vancouver Canucks on Sept. 29.
The club said on Aug. 26 that four players are not expected to take part in camp. Forward Mattias Janmark and defenceman Alec Regula are recovering from medical procedures, while forward Matt Savoie and goaltender Frederik Andersen are rehabilitating injuries sustained during off-season training. The team said updates on each player’s availability would be provided when appropriate.
Context matters for how much weight any of this carries. Edmonton lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers in 2024 and again in 2025, then was eliminated in the Western Conference First Round last spring, falling 5-2 to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 on April 30 to lose the series in six. Carolina won the Cup.
A preseason countdown is a talking point rather than a verdict, and it is compiled by a television network’s staff rather than by a voting body. What it does register is that the league’s evaluators still treat Bouchard’s offensive production as the outlier at his position rather than the standard, and that Edmonton’s two most decorated players are waiting somewhere in the 30 names still to be read out.
Sources: NHL.com (Sept. 7, Aug. 31 and Aug. 10, 2026); Edmonton Oilers official releases and preseason schedule (edmontonoilers.com).
