The Edmonton Oilers have an important announcement to make today. They are announcing that top power play defenceman Evan Bouchard signs a major contract extension to stay with the club. Although the Oilers ultimately came up short in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final versus the Florida Panthers, like they did in 2024, they didn’t want to take any back seat on the negotiations with Bouchard. This is a big signing for the organization, and player, too. We could’ve guessed from all the rumours going around, this would’ve been the approximate amount. Now it has come to fruition. Bouchard is signing a four-year extension, with an average annual value of $10.5 million.
Evan Bouchard is signing a four-year extension with Edmonton carrying a $10.5M AAV.
First to report: @Hockey_Robinson
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 30, 2025
Oilers Star Defenceman Evan Bouchard Re-Signs Contract Extension
Evan Bouchard is an Oiler product. The Oakville, Ontario native was originally drafted tenth overall in 2018 to Edmonton. Since then, the Oilers organization has been developing Bouchard along. Now, as he came to free agent, still with restricted status, he had developed his play enough, to really cash in.
Even up to as recently as the 2022-23 campaign, Bouchard’s play, and numbers to support, hadn’t really taken off. Then, Oilers management was able to secure a big fish. They acquired Mattias Ekholm from the Nashville Predators. Moreover, that trade occurred in February of 2023. You seen the impact to end that campaign. However, once 2023-24 came around, Bouchard found a level of consistently at a much higher level, and a lot of the thanks goes to Ekholm’s calming influence.
Check Out Bouchard’s Stats
As Evan Bouchard signs, let’s recap his stats. He has recorded 82 and 67 points, respectively, over the past two NHL seasons. His ice time has been up around 23-minutes-a-night. Furthermore, his even-strength Corsi-for-percent-relative is a whopping 9.9. Simply sensational.
As a pairing, the Ekholm and Bouchard has been one of the league’s top pairings. You could make this conclusion from an analytic standpoint at least. In 2023-24, the partnered together for 1100 minutes and had an expected goal percentage of 61%. They followed it in 2024-25 at 59.5 xGoals% in 987 minutes together. Edmonton found an amazing top pair, and it has helped the team be successful the past couple of seasons.
Evan Bouchard more than deserved this contract extension, but still, the job’s not done. Bouchard, Ekholm, and the rest of the Oilers hope they can reach the final step. That means, claim the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship since 1990. With this contract, Bouchard and the Oilers have plenty of confidence they can accomplish that tall task together.
Main Photo Credit: Perry Nelson – Imagn Images
