January 25, 2026 by Ryan Lotsberg

Saturday night might have been Alex Ovechkin’s final visit to Rogers Place, but the night turned out to be historic for another reason. When asked if he had ever scored a hat trick before Saturday night’s thrilling 6-5 overtime win against the Washington Capitals, Evan Bouchard revealed that it was his first hat trick ever at any level of hockey.

Bouchard finished the night with three goals and three assists for six points, including tremendous plays to get assists on the game-tying and game-winning goals. An Oilers defenceman hasn’t scored a hat trick since Marc-Andre Bergeron did so against the Ottawa Senators on January 14, 2006. 

Previous to Bergeron, Paul Coffey scored a hat trick on December 20, 1985 against the Los Angeles Kings. Speaking of Coffey, no Oilers defenceman has recorded six or more points in a game since Coffey got eight points against the Detroit Red Wings on March 14, 1986. Kevin Lowe also got six points in a game on February 19, 1983 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to Jason Gregor, Bouchard is the fifth defenceman in NHL history to record a hat trick and at least six points in a game joining Sprague Cleghorn, Bobby Orr (x3), Tom Bladon, and Doug Crossman.

Bouchard’s name is now adjacent to Coffey’s in a few Oilers franchise records. By crossing the 50-point threshold during Saturday’s game, Bouchard joined Coffey as the only two Oilers defencemen to ever have more than two 50-point seasons as Oilers. Charlie Huddy, Steve Smith, and Risto Siltanen each have two such seasons. Bouchard’s 32 points in the 2023-24 playoffs are third all-time by an NHL defenceman in a single postseason. Coffey’s 37 points in 1984-85 top the list.

Bouchard now sits at 55 points this season, which ties him with Zach Werenski and Cale Makar atop the scoring race among NHL defencemen. The crazy part is that Bouchard didn’t register a point in the Oilers’ first six games of the season, and he’s caught up to the league leaders now. 

Say what you want, but when Bouchard gets going, he’s among the league’s best offensive defencemen. He’s an incredible passer, his patented Bouch-bomb is a killer, and his wrist shot is dangerous as well. “Panic” is a word that doesn’t exist in Bouchard’s vocabulary. His calmness and poise with the puck is perhaps his greatest asset.

That calmness is also the reason he gets a bad rap in Edmonton. His calmness gets him into trouble at the other end of the ice sometimes. It gets misrepresented as a lack of urgency or a lack of competitiveness. When he gives the puck away, he does so spectacularly.

Related: The Evan Bouchard Experience

Bouchard isn’t the perfect defenceman, but he’s a lot better defensively than he’s given credit for because of the glaring mistakes he tends to make when he’s off his game. A player like Bouchard that touches the puck as often as he does is going to give the puck away more often than players that don’t have the puck as often, that’s just the way it works. I’ll accept the mistakes because as you can tell by the company he keeps in the record books, there aren’t many players that can do what he does offensively. That matters a whole lot more to me than the odd defensive lapse or the odd spectacular giveaway.