Sportsnet: Jason Brough and Jamie Dodd on the Vancouver Canucks pending UFA Brock Boeser. It’s not looking like he’s going to be re-signed by the Canucks.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Brough: “D.K. in Squamish text in, he says, ‘Brock Boeser’s downfall needs to be studied. Do we even want to re-sign him now? Doesn’t fit in the bottom six, but not playing well enough to be in the top six. What are you supposed to do with him?’
I don’t think he’s getting re-signed D.K.”
Dodd: “No.”
Brough: “I think that’s, that’s an area, and that’s some cap space that the Canucks are gonna look to bring in a completely different type of player. One with a little more speed, based on, you know, the fact that they’ve committed to (Filip) Chytil. Maybe more of a playmaker, I, I don’t know.
But I’ve been saying for a long time now, and it’s not rocket science. My observation like, they really just don’t have many playmakers in the top-six. If Petterson is, you know, at the level that he is right now. And I think the one thing that we’ve been happy about is his willingness to shoot, and he’s got a few goals.
You know, the Canucks need, this is just such a basic way of saying it, but they need get more guys that know how to make things happen out there. And Connor Garland has been probably the most consistent. But if Connor Garland is your most consistent playmaker out there, you got a problem.”
Dodd: “You’re in trouble. You’re not going to have a particularly dangerous offense if that’s the case. And you know, even though Filip Chytil hasn’t been producing, I think you could really notice how much the Canucks missed his speed last , especially compared to Utah, which does have a really fast forward group. The Canucks just looked so slow. For much of the game. Utah seemed to be first to nearly every puck. And it’s, it’s not even like Utah was super dangerous off the rush or constantly exposing the Canucks in that way. But again, it was just, you know, getting to lose pucks first. All of that, the Canucks did not have a lot of jump. I get it second half of back to back, but that’s an issue even when they’re a well rested team.
And to your point, on Boeser, they just so desperately that, number one, they need high-end impact players. And that’s a very difficult thing to do. But if you’re talking about just specific traits of players, the thing they need more than anything else is speed up front. And we all know that’s not Brock Boeser’s strong point.
So you only have so much cap space to work with. You’ve already, from what we hear, damaged the relationship with the player anyways, with your comments after the deadline. It’s hard to see a road back where it makes sense for both sides when they are so desperate for speed up front. And he just doesn’t bring that.”
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