Vancouver Canucks: Brock Boeser will challenge for Maurice Richard Trophy
By Alex Hoegler
Pavel Bure is the only Vancouver Canucks player to lead the league in goals, having done so in 1993-94. But don’t sleep on Brock Boeser, who’ll be in contention for the Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy.
Vancouver Canucks sniper Brock Boeser did much better than anybody could have expected in his rookie 2017-18 season, scoring 29 goals and 55 points, despite missing the final month of the season with a back injury.
Boeser would have surely threatened to score 40 goals if he didn’t miss 20 games last season, but the good news is 2018-19 is a fresh start. Now that he and Bo Horvat have proper chemistry established, Boeser should be in line for a monster second year.
And not only will he (probably), lead the Canucks in scoring, but you shouldn’t sleep on Boeser’s chances of winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, given annually to the league’s top goal-scorer.
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Pavel Bure is the last Canuck to lead the NHL in goals, accomplished in 1993-94 when he scored 60. Bure led Vancouver to the Stanley Cup Final that year, where they fell to the New York Rangers in seven games.
The Richard Trophy was first introduced for the 1998-99 season, and no Canuck has won it.
Mind you, few teams have a player who has won the award. Alexander Ovechkin ruined the trophy’s parity, having won it seven times since 2007-08, including five of the past six years.
The race figures to be wide open this year, but why should we rule out Boeser’s chances? Provided he’s healthy, Boeser will have first line minutes throughout the entire season, and he’ll have either Horvat or prized prospect Elias Pettersson feeding him the puck.
Take a look at some of the top goal-scorers from last year. We know William Karlsson (43), Eric Staal (42), Anders Lee (40), and Rickard Rackell (34), probably won’t reach their respective totals again.
You can’t count out the likes of Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Anze Kopitar or Sidney Crosby, either. But these are veterans in their 30s now, so scoring 35-plus goals is easier said than done. Boeser has the age factor on his side here, and he’s not coming off an intense playoff run like some of these veteran stars.
Boeser has all the makings to be a 40-goal scorer in today’s NHL, and who said he had to score 50? Crosby won the award in 2016-17 with 44 goals. Boeser may only need 40-45 to win it the award.
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Now, Boeser faces long odds of leading the NHL in goals next season, as does every other player. At the end of the day, it’s every man for himself. But we know Boeser’s capable of 40 goals, and that could be all he needs to win the Maurice Richard trophy next year. Keep the faith, Vancouver fans.