Canucks, Brock Boeser

Canucks Boeser Trade Talk Beneath The Noise

After deflecting on trade talk regarding J.T. Miller, Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin was pretty matter-of-fact on Monday morning as it related to a possible trade for pending unrestricted free agent winger Brock Boeser.

“We know Brock and the conversations, and evaluating, again, two sides to it,” Allvin said. “It’s gotta work for both sides long term and anything could happen here, I guess any day.”

Say what?!

That statement followed an even more remarkable one from Boeser three days ago when talking to reporter Iain MacIntyre for his Sportsnet article.

“Any team that’s not doing well, there’s going to be changes,” Boeser told MacIntyre. “I haven’t played to my best this year, and I expect better for myself and, you know, I’m a UFA at the end of the year. So they could look at me and be like, ‘He’s the easy guy (to trade) right now.'”

That would make the unofficial Brock Boeser fan club very sad. It seems to be a large membership in Vancouver, for a very nice 27-year-old Minnesotan who’s spent his entire eight year career with the Canucks.

For years the local media asked him when he was finally going to top the 30-goal mark for a season, after tallying 29 his first full year in the league. Last season Boeser blew that benchmark away with 40.

Now it appears the club is open to moving on from the winger who this season has posted 15 goals and 28 points in 38 games. The deal that saw him make $6.65-million for the last three seasons is coming to an end.

Keep him and/or re-sign him if the season improves and the Canucks look to be headed to the playoffs as expected? Or dump him at the trade deadline and move on, keeping in mind that Boeser is entering his prime years and likely wouldn’t mind cashing in for some unreasonably large free agent money.

Logically, unless an amazing trade offer comes down the pike, we won’t get an answer until after the NHL’s two week break for the Four Nations Face-Off in February. The trade deadline is March 7th.

“I wouldn’t say urgency, I’d say we’re still evaluating him,” Allvin said. “I have a great relationship with his agent and when the time is right we’ll make the decision.”

Boeser has had to withstand all of the same noise and nonsense that’s been swirling around his hockey cohorts Miller and Elias Pettersson.

“It’s been an interesting year,” Boeser stated after practice on Monday. “Lots of injuries, had some distractions and stuff, and at times it can be tough to block everything out, but sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes I feel it affects our team in some games. We’ve gotta do our best to learn from that and make sure we can block it out and really focus on these games.”

Boeser has pointed out how much he likes playing here, how much he loves his teammates, and how big a win the 3-2 victory over the Oilers was on Saturday night. One that could trigger some confidence and momentum.

If it does, Allvin might be inspired to keep the band together. If not, Boeser might be the first one out the door.

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Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.
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Wade S.
Wade S.
15 days ago

This article is accurate. Patrick and Jim are leaning on moving on from Brock who will
demand a big pay raise. Concerning J.T, Patrick and Jim will move him during the off season when teams have more cap space which creates more competitive bids for him from more NHL teams.