Out of all the Canadian NHL teams, the Vancouver Canucks are the ones most involved in the beginning stages of a rebuild, whether they want to admit it or not.
Already with a decent collection of 23-and-unders on the NHL roster, including Bo Horvat, Troy Stecher, Ben Hutton, Nikita Tryamkin and more, Vancouver could soon be adding another one of their top prospects to the lineup down the stretch.
Brock Boeser, drafted 23rd overall in the 2015 draft, had his season at the University of North Dakota come to an end Friday night. In Round 1 of the NCAA Hockey Championship, North Dakota fell 4-3 in double overtime to Boston University, bringing to a close Boeser’s sophomore season.
In Boeser’s 2015-16 freshman season, he scored 27 goals and 60 points in 42 games and followed it up with 16 goals and 33 points in 31 games this season. Boeser missed part of the season with a wrist injury and had to sit out of the World Junior Championship.
If the Canucks do sign Boeser, it would end his career at North Dakota. The Canucks have nine games remaining in their regular season and have been eliminated from post-season contention. They could choose to get Boeser into NHL games down the stretch to start seeing what they have and give him an idea what’s in store for him in the near future. At 20 years old, if Boeser plays one NHL game this season, it would burn a year off his entry-level deal.
[relatedlinks]
