From 2017-2020 there was one opponent that goaltenders in the Eastern Conference feared most.

Reid Boucher.

In those three seasons (17-18/18-19/19-20), Boucher scored ninety goals in 154 games, head and shoulders above his contemporaries during that time.

The league recognised his talent and personal achievements, anointing him a three-time AHL All-Star during those years.

The Michigan native wanted something more however and sought a move after failing to play a single game in the NHL through the 2019-20 campaign.

Selected 99th overall by the New Jersey Devils in 2011, Boucher would spend six years with the organisation before being claimed off waivers by the Nashville Predators.

Almost exactly thirteen months later, the winger was placed on waivers on January 1, 2017, by Nashville and claimed by New Jersey. Two days later the Devils waived the USA forward who was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks.

Boucher would remain with the Canucks organisation until 2020 and after being pursued by many overseas clubs opted to sign in Russia.

After an NHL career spanning 133 games in which he scored twenty goals and recorded 42 points, the former AHL All-Star opted for a KHL adventure with Avangard Omsk.

Avangard Omsk had been a fairly consistent winning team up until Boucher joined them.
Six straight seasons of making the playoffs and one run to the final which ended in Omsk being swept by the dominant force of CSKA Moscow.

Boucher was just one of two North American’s on the team but did have the comfort of Canadian Bob Hartley as his head coach for 2020-21.

Avangard would win their division and finish second in the Eastern Conference, just six points back of Ak Bars Kazan.
Boucher led his new team in scoring with 48 points in 51 games and finished 5th overall in the KHL for goals having hit the twine 24 times.

Heading into the playoffs, the 27-year-old had never won a professional championship.

It would take the sharpshooter until game four of the first series against Avtomobilist to find his range, netting a first goal and point of the post-season.
An assist in game five helped Omsk to clinch a 4-1 series victory.

The second round against Metallurg was a rather topsy-turvy affair that started with a 5-2 reverse and could have gone south had Avangard not won the second game in overtime 2-1.

Boucher recorded a point in each of the six games including the primary assist on the game two winner, the second goal in the game three 3-0 win and a short-handed tally in the final game of the series, a 5-1 success.

The Conference Final against AK Bars Kazan looked to be incredibly close on paper and that’s how it turned out with the series going to seven games and four of those decided by a solitary goal.

Producing offense was more difficult in a keenly contested affair but the US forward still made his mark. Three assists in the opening four games of the series before netting an overtime winner in game five.

In the deciding game seven and Avangard trailing in the third period, Boucher assisted on the game-tying goal and Omsk would yet again prevail in overtime to send themselves into the Gagarin Final against CSKA Moscow.

Boucher netted in game one of the final as Avangard took a 4-1 victory.

CSKA struck back to take a 2-1 series lead with 3-0 and 2-1 victories with Boucher scoring the lone goal for his team through those defeats.

For the fifth time in the playoffs, Avangard went to overtime and kept their perfect record intact with a 4-3 win levelling the series at two apiece, Boucher recording a solitary assist.

A second short-handed tally of the post-season from the 27-year-old was an insurance marker in a 2-0 success to put Avanagrd within one game of clinching a first Gargarin Cup.

That was achieved in game six in the narrowest of margins with a 1-0 victory.

The NHL might be the be-and-end all for many media and fans but the American Hockey League is full of very good players for whom the NHL just escapes their grasp.

The sharpest shooter of recent times deserved an opportunity to show his worth elsewhere and gained just rewards for taking a calculated risk.

Now a free-agent having only penned a one year KHL deal, Reid Boucher will be a highly sought after commodity this summer.

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