Canucks Rumors: Brock Boeser Impasse Comes Down To This One Issue

Pending UFA Brock Boeser came out late last week and said, given how things have gone in talks with the Canucks this season, he likely won't be back in Vancouver after spending the first nine years of his career there.

After he's averaged 28 goals per 82 games over his career there, including six 20+ goal campaigns in eight full seasons, what exactly has gone wrong? Insider Elliotte Friedman has an answer on what the impasse has come down to, and he revealed it on his Saturday Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada.

I understand the biggest issue here is term. Never say never, but term is the issue that both Boeser and the Canucks have found hard to bridge.

We have heard that the team has offered Boeser a five-year extension at an $8 million AAV. Friedman said on his 32 Thoughts podcast "I don't know if I see the Canucks beating that (with a longer-term offer), and I don't know if I see Boeser accepting that... I'm not sure... if it's possible to bridge the gap."

A "Canucks' success story" from the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, as Friedman points out, Boeser was the 23rd selection by Vancouver, but he is 8th among all draftees that year since then in goals, only behind the likes of players like Connor McDavid, Mikko Rantanen, and Mitch Marner, among others, who were all taken far ahead of him.

Boeser, now 28, has pledged his love for Vancouver and his desire to stay, but it just sounds like the Canucks aren't interested in paying him through to age 36.

For what it's worth, AFP Analytics, in their midseason forecast, had Boeser projected at landing a seven-year deal with a $9 million AAV. He might be able to score that on the open market, but it sounds unlikely in Vancouver.