Brock Boeser further proved his value to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. It’s time to end the trade talk regarding No. 6 now.
Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser was certainly motivated to silence the doubters in Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild.
The Canucks as a whole performed poorly in Sunday’s Game 1 loss, but the lack of energy and scoring opportunities from the first line was especially concerning. In 18:54 of ice time, Boeser recorded just one shot on goal, with one hit and a single blocked shot.
Boeser, by the way, has been the subject of trade rumors in recent weeks. Matt Sekeres of TSN 1040 (h/t Rick Dhaliwal) was first to report that Vancouver was “exploring” the idea of trading the 23-year-old sniper.
Now, general manager Jim Benning was rather quick to shut down the Boeser trade speculation. But it’s important to note that a GM will almost never admit if he’s shopping a player.
So we really don’t know if Benning is seriously looking to trade Boeser. The bottom line is that after Tuesday’s impressive outing against Minnesota, the Canucks shouldn’t even be thinking about trading him, period.
After a quiet outing on Sunday, Boeser looked every bit like the game-changing force Vancouver fans know and love. He scored the pivotal third goal to put the Canucks up 3-1 in the second period. They were firmly in control from there, and head coach Travis Green was able to relax with a more defensive approach in the third period.
Boeser was all over the ice on Tuesday. In 19:14 of ice time, he finished with three shots on goal and a plus-two rating. He, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller completely took over the game offensively, and the less skilled Wild simply couldn’t keep up.
This was the second playoff game of Boeser’s career, and he made the very most of it. Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, it’s evident that Boeser is built for these big games, and the Canucks would be foolish to even consider trading him just as their window of opportunity begins to open.