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Brock Boeser

Pacific Notes: Fowler, Stone, Walman, Stezka, Boeser, Joshua

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman unveiled that the Anaheim Ducks were working on a trade with their longest-tenured player, defenseman Cam Fowler, just before the 2024-25 preseason. Despite the rumor, and a few team’s obvious need for a top-four defenseman, Fowler still finds himself a member of the Ducks’ organization.

According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, that’s not for a lack of trying. In last week’s rendition of ’The Latest’, Pagnotta said, “He wants to go to a contender, just like John Gibson, the goaltender there as well. They’re kind of over this little rebuild situation that they’re in. But because of that extra year, that value is propped up a little bit. He’s not an expiring deal. This isn’t a rental situation. So those conversations will continue as the season progresses.”

He went on to note that Fowler may be interested in waiving his four-team no-trade clause to help facilitate a deal and Anaheim would retain some salary on their end. Few contending teams could absorb Fowler’s $6.5MM cap hit for this season and next but the Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings, and Utah Hockey Club all strike as clear choices that could use a veteran presence in their top-four.

Other Pacific notes:

  • The Vegas Golden Knights were dealt a blow a few days ago after captain Mark Stone went down with a lower-body injury. Thankfully there won’t be any long-term concern for Stone as Elliotte Friedman reported the injury isn’t considered serious. Stone hasn’t participated in a full season since the 2020-21 campaign. Still, the Golden Knights will want to get him as close as possible this year with Stone scoring six goals and 21 points already in only 13 games.
  • According to beat reporter Max Miller, San Jose Sharks defenseman Jake Walman will miss his fourth straight game due to an upper-body injury. The Sharks have weathered the storm without Walman with two wins in their last three games but the injury is a major buzzkill for a defenseman who recorded seven points in four games before the injury.
  • Philipp Grubauer still isn’t ready for the Seattle Kraken meaning the team had to get a second goaltender on the roster. For the second time in less than a week, the team announced they had recalled netminder Ales Stezka from their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, on an emergency basis. Stezka has a 2-5-0 record with the Firebirds this season with a .894 SV% but has yet to debut with the Kraken.
  • It became apparent rather quickly that Vancouver Canucks’ forward Brock Boeser would miss some time after being on the receiving end of a hit from Los Angeles Kings forward Tanner Jeannot which warranted a three-game suspension. Offering an update this afternoon, Vancouver’s play-by-play announcer, Brendan Batchelor, shared that Boeser is only expected to miss the next few days. This means that Boeser will likely miss Vancouver’s game tomorrow night against the Calgary Flames but could return for Thursday’s action against the New York Islanders.
  • Unfortunately, the Canucks won’t be able to replace Boeser with Dakota Joshua as Batchelor also shared he isn’t expected to return tomorrow. There’s no indication that Joshua suffered a setback in his recovery from testicular cancer. Still, the team is likely doing its due diligence to be sure that Joshua is fully healthy and ready for game speed.

Injury Updates: Canucks, Brossoit, Romanov

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The Canucks will be without winger Brock Boeser tonight against Edmonton as he’s still being evaluated for the upper-body injury he sustained on Thursday, shares Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor (Twitter link).  After a breakout performance last season that saw him score 40 goals and 33 assists in 81 games, the 27-year-old is off to a nice start offensively this year with six goals and five assists in his first dozen games.  It’s a contract year for Boeser so he’ll certainly be hoping to avoid any long-term absence.

Meanwhile, Canucks GM Patrik Allvin shared some updates on a few other players to Batchelor and other reporters.  The team is hopeful that forward Dakota Joshua will make his season debut at some point on their current home stand as he continues to work his way back from testicular cancer.  Goaltender Thatcher Demko still has no timeline to make his season debut as his knee injury continues to keep him out of the lineup.  Lastly, prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki (a speculative recall candidate following the Daniel Sprong trade), tweaked something and won’t be available for AHL Abbotsford tonight which takes him out of the potential recall equation for the time being.

Other injury news from around the NHL:

  • Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson told reporters including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link) that there is now no timeline for when goaltender Laurent Brossoit will make his debut. Brossoit is dealing with a meniscus injury, one that he was supposed to be back from weeks ago.  Richardson likens the injury to Demko’s situation in Vancouver in that it’s going to be difficult to pinpoint a potential return time for him.  Brossoit signed a two-year, $6.6MM contract with Chicago in July after a strong season as the backup in Winnipeg.
  • While Islanders blueliner Alexander Romanov isn’t expected to play tonight, he will accompany the team on their upcoming Western Canada road trip, relays Ethan Sears of the New York Post (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has missed the last week with an upper-body injury but did skate today.  With the Isles already down Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly, they’ll certainly be looking forward to getting Romanov back sooner than later.  He’s logging over 21 minutes a night and has a pair of assists in eight games so far this season.

Kings’ Tanner Jeannot Receives Three Game Suspension

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5:43 PM: The Department of Player Safety announced Jeannot has been suspended three games for the hit on Boeser last night.

10:30 AM: The NHL Department of Player Safety announced today that Kings winger Tanner Jeannot will have a hearing today for an illegal check to the head against Canucks star Brock Boeser. It’s not an in-person hearing, so his pending suspension will be five games or less.

The incident occurred midway through the first period of last night’s 4-2 road win for Vancouver. Immediately after Boeser completed a neutral-zone pass, Jeannot attempted to lay an open-ice hit on Boeser while crossing the other direction. He led with his shoulder, making contact with Boeser’s head and knocking him out of the game (video via Lachlan Irvine of Canucks Army). Officials assessed Jeannot a match penalty on the play, initiating an automatic league review for supplemental discipline.

Vancouver has yet to give Boeser an injury designation, so he remains uncertain for tomorrow’s game against the Oilers. Hearings that do not result in suspensions are rare, so the Kings are undoubtedly preparing to be without Jeannot tomorrow against the Blue Jackets and potentially for a couple of more games afterward. The heavy-hitting power forward has never been suspended in his 242-game NHL career, but he has been fined once before for kneeing Senators captain Brady Tkachuk in March 2022.

The 15 PIMs assessed to Jeannot last night gave him 36 on the season, the most in the league. Through his first 15 games as a King, the 27-year-old has struggled to produce offensively, with just a goal and an assist while averaging 10:28 per game. So far, it’s not the resurgence L.A. hoped for when they parted ways with a pair of draft picks to acquire him from the Lightning in June. He hasn’t been a legitimate top-nine player offensively since his rookie season when he potted 24 goals and 41 points in 81 games for the Predators in 2021-22.

Three years later, it’s become clear that his play that season was more of a flash in the pan than anything else. In 146 games since for the Preds, Bolts and Kings, he has just 14 goals and 34 points with a -18 rating. Upon completing the two-year, $5.33MM deal he signed with Tampa Bay in 2023, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Latest On Brock Boeser

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All signs point to Canucks sniper Brock Boeser being ready for the season after he told reporters today he’s off blood thinners and has been cleared for contact (via Noah Strang of Daily Hive Vancouver). He missed the final game of Vancouver’s season, a Game 7 loss to the Oilers in the Second Round after scans showed clotting that stemmed from a blocked shot earlier in the series.

However, Boeser, 27, isn’t entirely out of the woods yet. He made it clear the situation will be one to “monitor throughout this season,” Strang said. He also added that he’ll need to wear compression gear on flights to prevent additional clotting issues.

After a breakout 40-goal, 73-point regular season, the clotting issue didn’t impact Boeser’s usual offseason training routine too much. During Vancouver’s end-of-season media availability in May, the winger said that he anticipated being ready for training camp in the fall. He didn’t disclose today if his contact clearance was a recent development or if it came earlier in the offseason.

And, as expected, Boeser also said he hasn’t begun negotiations on a contract extension and will instead let those play out after the season starts (per Strang). That’s what Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance of The Athletic indicated would happen last month, with a lack of talks coming across the wire thus far in the offseason. Boeser is entering the final season of a three-year, $19.95MM deal with a $6.65MM AAV, one he’ll eclipse by a significant amount if he can repeat last season’s showing.

It’s unlikely that will be the case, though. Boeser could still earn a raise, but expecting him to hit the 40-goal mark again seems unrealistic. The Minnesota native shot 19.6% last season – nearly six points above his career average. With an expected regression to the 13-14% range, the 30-goal plateau is still reachable.

He still projects to play a starring role on a new-look Canucks offense that now features Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, and Daniel Sprong, replacing some outgoing names like Sam Lafferty, Elias Lindholm, and Ilya Mikheyev. He’s slated to start the season as Vancouver’s top right wing in first-line minutes alongside J.T. Miller.

West Notes: Boeser, Soderstrom, Edstrom

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The 2023-24 season was a breakout showing for Canucks winger Brock Boeser.  He reached the 40-goal mark for the first time while his 73 points were also a personal best.  Despite that, a contract extension doesn’t appear to be on the horizon as Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic report (subscription link) that there have yet to be any discussions about a new deal.  The 27-year-old is entering the final year of his existing contract which makes him extension-eligible.  He’s bound to be eyeing a raise from his current $6.65MM AAV with some potential comparables starting with a seven.  For now, it appears that Vancouver’s management wants to see if Boeser can have a repeat showing in 2024-25 before committing to what will be another long-term, big-money agreement.

More from out West:

  • In an interview with Mattias Ek of Hockey News SE, Utah RFA defenseman Victor Soderstrom expressed some frustration with how he was continually passed over for recalls with Arizona last season despite a solid performance that saw him put up 32 points in 62 games with AHL Tucson. The 23-year-old played in just three games for the Coyotes in 2023-24, giving him 53 career appearances at the top level.  Soderstrom didn’t rule out the possibility of signing overseas but acknowledged that a return to Brynas (where he spent most of his time before coming to North America) was unlikely for the 2024-25 campaign.
  • New Predators prospect David Edstrom spent last season on loan to SHL Frolunda after signing his entry-level deal with Vegas. However, it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case this time around.  In an interview with 102.5 The Game (audio link), Nashville GM Barry Trotz indicated that he envisions his new center playing big minutes with AHL Milwaukee.  Since Edstrom wasn’t drafted out of the CHL, he is AHL-eligible despite being just 19.  He played in 44 games in Sweden last season, picking up 19 points and should be counted on to produce a bit more than that in his first taste of action in North America.

Poll: Who Will Be The Top Free Agent Option Next Summer?

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As things currently stand, the 2025 free agent class is set to be headlined by Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche, and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Like most years and particularly at the top of the free agent market, all three players are expected to reach extensions with their current clubs in the coming weeks with other potential candidates taking the same approach.

However, even outside of the three-headed monster at the forward position, there will still be quality names available next summer. Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs has seen his name pop up numerous times in trade rumors this summer without anything coming to fruition. The Maple Leafs are expecting head coach Craig Berube to get the most out of Marner (particularly in the playoffs) and may look to extend him during next year’s campaign.

Toronto could also give in to the pressure and allow Marner to walk next offseason especially if the team fails to make waves in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Marner would quickly become one of the premier playmakers to have entered the open market and would certainly get a lucrative offer. Being nearly unstoppable during the regular season over the last six years, Marner has accrued 417 games for the Maple Leafs in that span while scoring 356 assists and 509 points. He is not limited to his offensive prowess either as Marner has earned Selke Trophy votes as the league’s best defensive forward every year since 2018-19.

Dissimilar to Marner, it is almost entirely out of the question that Nikolaj Ehlers will sign an extension with the Winnipeg Jets. Ehlers has been a part of the Jets organization since being drafted by the club with the ninth overall pick of the 2014 NHL Draft and has put up 201 goals and 457 points in 605 games in Winnipeg’s uniform. There have been rather public reports out of Winnipeg that Ehlers won’t be re-upping with the organization and immediately became one of the top trade options available this offseason. The native of Aalborg, Denmark excels in passing the puck but also regularly puts up some of the best possession numbers in the game.

Lastly, Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks could be the top goal scorer to enter the free-agent market next summer. His market and projected contract will be more difficult to ascertain however as he averaged between 28-29 goals through the first seven years of his career before rifling off 40 markers this past season. Boeser’s shooting percentage was also up 7.1% last year compared to his career average which may be a sign of regression next year. If he can get anywhere near 40 goals again this season with the Canucks, he may cement himself as one of the top-five options next summer.

The proposed list is not constrained to these three players as the likes of Carter Verhaeghe, Brock Nelson, John Tavares, and Jamie Benn could all be available as well as the three players initially listed. The list will thin considerably over the next calendar year but who do you think will be the top option available once the season turns over to July 1st, 2025?

Who Will Be The Top Free Agent Option Next Summer?
Mitch Marner 55.98% (557 votes)
Nikolaj Ehlers 15.98% (159 votes)
Brock Boeser 14.97% (149 votes)
Other (comment below) 13.07% (130 votes)
Total Votes: 995

What Will Brock Boeser’s Next Contract Look Like?

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The looming contract of Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks was recently analyzed by Patrick Johnston of The Province. Johnston argues that Boeser is almost certainly set to get a raise from his current $6.65MM salary but it shouldn’t be an unpalatable one from the Canucks’ perspective.

Like many members of the 2023-24 Canucks, Boeser is coming off one of the best statistical seasons of his career. He cracked the 40-goal mark for the first time while finishing third on the team in scoring among forwards with 73 points. Boeser also finished third among forwards in ice time while averaging 18:36 a game and played the most out of any forwards when Vancouver was tied, or leading by one or two goals.

As much as he’s relied upon by head coach Rick Tocchet, Boeser will have a hard time arguing he is more than the third-most important forward on the roster. Because of this, he will almost certainly not crack J.T. Miller’s salary of $8MM per season in Vancouver, and he must also prove that last season was not a flash in the pan. From 2017-23, Boeser averaged a 12.7% shooting percentage while being a solid secondary scorer, and his 19.6% mark this past season leads to assumptions that regression towards his mean will soon follow.

Compared to his peers around the league, Boeser’s $6.65MM cap hit ranks 30th among wingers in the NHL, and he will once again have difficulty arguing that he is worth more to the Canucks than Jason Robertson is to the Dallas Stars who gave him an AAV of $7.75MM for four years. According to HockeyReference, Boeser shows a near-identical similarity score to Clayton Keller of the Utah Hockey Club who makes a salary of $7.15MM.

A modest $500K salary increase over a presumably longer-term deal may feel like a slap in the face to Boeser which could seriously hinder the extension negotiations. However, especially with all the data available to teams, it’s hard to envision Boeser landing more on the open market. There may be a scenario where he could earn closer to $7.75MM with the cap set to rise considerably over the next few years but that will likely be the cutoff point for many teams.

A contract in the $7.15MM-$7.75MM over the next four to six years shouldn’t be unpalatable to Vancouver either. The team will be laser-like focused on the upcoming contracts for Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko, but a hypothetical contract in that range for Boeser shouldn’t prohibit any long-term plans. This team will only go as far as their core can take them and given Boeser’s importance to the organization’s turnaround last season, he should be a player they envision on the team moving forward.

Canucks Notes: Boeser, Pettersson, DeSmith, Myers

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Canucks winger Brock Boeser won’t have his offseason training routine interrupted by the blood clotting issue that kept him out of their second-round Game 7 loss to the Oilers, he said during today’s end-of-season media availability (via Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 650). All indications point to him being ready for the beginning of training camp in the fall.

That’s because Boeser’s clot had a clear root cause – a shot he blocked during Game 1 of the Edmonton series, he disclosed. He didn’t notice bruising or pain until roughly a week after the game and went for scans after their Game 6 loss that showed enough clotting to prevent him from suiting up.

While a handful of important Canucks players could be moving on this summer in free agency, Boeser won’t be one of them. He’ll be back in B.C. as he completes the final season of a three-year, $19.95MM extension signed by GM of the Year finalist Patrik Allvin back in July 2022.

Boeser’s resurgence to his early-career form was one of the bigger reasons Vancouver captured its first division title since 2013. He set career-highs across the board with 40 goals and 73 points in 81 games but is an unlikely bet to repeat that production after shooting 5.8% above his career average in the regular season.

Here’s more on the Canucks:

  • Star center Elias Pettersson offered an explanation today for his underwhelming play down the stretch and in the postseason, telling reporters he’s been playing through a knee injury since January (via Thomas Drance of The Athletic). Pettersson, whose point production dropped from 102 last season to 89 this year, won’t require surgery to address the issue but will need to rest and rehab the injury before beginning offseason training. The 2017 fifth-overall pick signed an eight-year, $92.8MM extension shortly before the trade deadline that carries an $11.6MM cap hit beginning next season.
  • The injury to backup Casey DeSmith in Game 3 of the first round against the Predators that forced third-stringer Arturs Silovs into action for Game 4 was a minor groin issue, DeSmith said today (via Batchelor). DeSmith, who had a .911 SV% and 2.02 GAA in two appearances against Nashville after starter Thatcher Demko was injured in Game 1, said the team sat him for precautionary reasons and elected to play Silovs. He was available to play throughout the entire second round, but the younger Silovs remained between the pipes, compiling a .898 SV%, 2.91 GAA and one shutout in the first 10 postseason starts of his career.
  • Pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Tyler Myers said he’d like to return to Vancouver this summer (via Drance). The 34-year-old right-shot defender is coming off a five-year, $30MM contract that was hardly a good value proposition for the team, but the veteran had a decent season in a reduced role this year with 29 points and a +16 rating in 77 games. It was the only time he’d averaged less than 20 minutes per game in his 15-year career. Evolving Hockey projects a Myers extension in Vancouver to come in at $3.5MM per season for two years.

Canucks’ Brock Boeser Out With Blood Clotting Issue, Likely Out For Season

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May 20: Boeser’s blood clotting issue is in his leg and is expected to sideline him for the rest of the playoffs no matter how far the Canucks advance, Daily Faceoff”s Frank Seravalli reports Monday. He’s been placed on medication to address the clot.

May 19: The Canucks will be without top-six winger Brock Boeser for Monday’s Game 7 against the Oilers, per freelance reporter Irfaan Gaffar. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds it’s a non-life-threatening blood clotting issue sidelining Boeser, who could miss more time if Vancouver advances to the Western Conference Final.

The timing of this news couldn’t be any worse for Boeser and Vancouver as they head into the seventh and deciding game of their series against Edmonton on Monday night.  The 27-year-old has been one of Vancouver’s top threats this postseason, collecting seven goals and five assists in 12 games.  He leads the team in playoff goals and is tied with J.T. Miller for the lead in points with 12 while logging more than 20 minutes a night on their top line.  Those numbers come on the heels of his best regular season, one that saw him set career-highs in goals (40) and points (73).

Among the options to take Boeser’s spot will be Ilya Mikheyev if he’s ready to return from an undisclosed injury that has kept him out of the last two games, Sam Lafferty, who has been scratched the last two games after a tough start to the playoffs, or Linus Karlsson, who was among their Black Ace recalls earlier this month and has gotten into a pair of games so far.  Head coach Rick Tocchet suggested earlier this week that he might be comfortable using top prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki as well although that would certainly be a risky move to give a youngster his NHL debut in an elimination game.  None of those players will be able to step into the role that Boeser filled so Tocchet will have to juggle his lines to see if he can find the right combination to pick up a win without one of their top forwards.

Pacific Notes: Boeser, Demko, Kraken

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Harman Dayal of The Athletic tweeted that Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet downplayed Brock Boeser’s early exit from practice today. Boeser had left the ice after taking a shot up high on the wrist during a powerplay drill. Tocchet said that Boeser was fine as far as he knew and added that Boeser hadn’t said anything about a potential ailment.

The Canucks are already dealing with a significant injury with goaltender Thatcher Demko out of the lineup and can ill afford to lose more key pieces from their team. Boeser has just one assist through the first two games of round 1 but is coming off a career year having posted 40 goals and 33 assists in 81 regular season games.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Speaking of Demko, the netminder travelled with the Canucks to Nashville (according to SportsNet’s Dan Murphy). Although he made the trip, there doesn’t appear to be any change to his status as he remains week-to-week. Patrick Johnston of Postmedia writes that his sources tell him that Demko wouldn’t be able to return from injury until the Conference Finals, while Donnie & Dhali of CHEK TV believe he could return late in round 2 if the Canucks can survive until then.
  • The Seattle Kraken announced a new partnership today that will see their local broadcasts shift from ROOT Sports over to TEGNA-owned stations KONG as well as KING 5. KONG will broadcast all non-nationally televised Kraken games while KING 5 will simulcast 15 games as well. The deal effectively ends the Kraken’s relationship with ROOT Sports, who had broadcast Seattle games for their first three seasons. In addition to the new local television deal, the Kraken will also see all non-nationally televised games broadcast on Amazon Prime Video for people in Washington State, Oregon, and Alaska at no extra cost. Seattle becomes the first NHL team to strike a deal with Prime and could become a model for other franchises going forward.

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