Welcome Matt: Boeser extension a win-win for Canucks and their sniper
There was a narrow needle to thread between the Vancouver Canucks and Brock Boeser on a contract extension so give both sides credit for getting a deal done.
There’s some give-and-take for both sides, which is usually the hallmark of a good deal.
Boeser stood to make $15 million over the next two seasons, so his motivation to do an extension was always about his desire to stay in Vancouver and his fans must be delighted that he put his money where his mouth was.
At $6.65M per year, it is entirely possible that Boeser is overpaid this coming season, or in each of the next two seasons, but is underpaid in that final year. That’s because the right winger sold his first unrestricted free agent year at a little less than $5 million considering the total value of the deal ($19.95M) and what he was already guaranteed over these next two seasons.
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Now, from the Canucks point of view, ideally you’d hope to buy more than one UFA season, but this negotiation was always going to be difficult given the structure of his previous deal and that guaranteed $7.5M qualifying offer.
And it also represents another win for the Rutherford/Allvin regime. To date, there biggest move had been successfully wooing Russian free agent Andrey Kuzmenko so it inspires confidence that this management team could get this deal done given what awaits with guys like Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson, not to mention a JT Miller trade that they must get right.
There is some risk in this deal for the Canucks. As much as Boeser played last year through the anguish of an ailing father back home, he didn’t build off his strong 2020-21 season.
That’s the second time in his career where you thought he was ready to take off (like following his rookie season) but didn’t quite reach the heights Canucks fans hoped.
Injuries have been a problem, and his pace needs improvement (or the hockey IQ must compensate for a lack of speed) in an ever-quickening NHL.
Lastly, this new deal does make Boeser more tradeable given that an acquiring team now knows how much they’d be on the hook for in any given deal. I don’t suspect the Canucks move Boeser after all this, but Rutherford/Allvin are intent on changing culture so nothing should surprise in this offseason of change.