Brock Boeser sidelined 3-4 weeks following hand surgery

Talk about bad news for the Vancouver Canucks.

On Monday afternoon, the team took to Twitter, announcing that forward Brock Boeser will be sidelined for 3-4 weeks due to a hand injury.

The 25-year-old winger sustained the injury on the last day of training camp.

At first, Boeser was listed as a “day-to-day” precaution, putting him on the sidelines for Sunday’s split-squad action against the Calgary Flames.

However, given the nature of the hand surgery, Boeser is now expected to return to the line-up near the middle of November, granted the recovery goes as planned.

This is obviously tough news for the former 2015 first round pick, who has now been hit with three separate injuries in the past four years – all of which took place during or right before training camp.

Moreover, Boeser will now have to wait another month to prove himself with the Canucks organization.

Boeser finished last year’s campaign with 23 goals and 23 assists in 71 games. The Burnsville, Minnesota native did manage to finish sixth in team scoring with those numbers, but still hasn’t been able to produce as consistently or explosively as he did during his rookie campaign in 2016-17.

During that year, Boeser notched 55 points in 62 games, including 29 goals, en route to a second-place Calder Trophy finish.

Boeser did manage to put up 26 goals in 2017-18, but then the production dipped to 16, 23 and 23 tallies respectively in the following three seasons.

There’s no doubt that Boeser has the potential to hit the 30-goal mark, an accomplishment that he was confident about hitting when speaking to the media early last week, but that could be in jeopardy given his recent diagnosis.

With Boeser sidelined for the next 3-4 weeks, the team will also need to find a suitable top-six winger replacement, opening the door for the likes of Nils Höglander and Vasily Podkolzin, both of whom would be expected to be third or fourth line candidates if they crack the opening night roster.

The Canucks are back in preseason action on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken, with their first regular season game scheduled for October 12th in Edmonton.

What are your thoughts on the Boeser injury? Let us know in the comments!