No trade interest in Boeser but Canucks are happy to keep him: report
The Vancouver Canucks are the only team in the NHL already over next year’s salary cap, so they’ll have to do something. But moving out Brock Boeser and his $6.65 million cap hit does not appear to be in the cards.
With three weeks to go before the NHL Draft, Pierre LeBrun is reporting in The Athletic that Boeser is not generating trade interest around the league. While Boeser could still be moved, it seems the Canucks are content keeping him.
“The reality from what I’m hearing is that the Canucks are more than happy to keep him in the fold if nothing comes their way that makes sense,” LeBrun wrote in Wednesday’s rumblings column.
LeBrun added that Boeser requested a meeting with Canucks GM Patrik Allvin after the season, indicating that he would prefer to stay in Vancouver.
That’s consistent with what Boeser said in April, when he told reporters in Vancouver that he’d had a change of heart.
“I don’t want to be traded,” Boeser said. “I’ve expressed to you guys how much I love it here. Obviously it was a tough year, personally, with my game and stuff this season.”
Boeser’s comments came months after his agent was granted permission to seek a trade from the team that drafted him in 2015. But given Boeser’s poor start to the season, the Canucks were unable to find a trade partner willing to take on the 26-year-old’s onerous contract.
“I think it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t get traded,” Boeser said. “Really thought I started to find my game after the trade deadline and the last bit of the season there.”
Boeser scored 16 points (6-10-16) in 21 games after the trade deadline, and spoke highly of new head coach Rick Tocchet.
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