NHL insider Elliotte Friedman admitted he got fooled by the Canucks and Brock Boeser situation, wondering if the team knew he would go back there all along.
A little over one week ago, the Vancouver Canucks caught the hockey community off guard by inking a seven-year contract extension with Brock Boeser at $7.25 million annually.
For months, the indications were that Brock Boeser would leave the club for bigger opportunities, but Patrik Allvin made the decision at the very last minute to reverse the trend. Boeser now has his contract locked in until 2032.
Mosrt insider felt Boeser would have been traded at the trade deadline
In the winter, nothing was in the works at first for the new contract, and general speculation was that Vancouver would package Boeser by the March 7 trade deadline to send him to a contender.
The March 7 date lapsed, though, and no contract was reached, as well as any trade made, so everyone was speculating. That only increased once the free-agency period began.
Come Elliotte Friedman, who in his show professed to being absolutely shocked and fooled by the situation.
Kyle Bukauskas: 'I kind of wondered, did the Canucks know Boeser wanted to be there all along?'Elliotte Friedman: 'I think there's definitely truth to that; Rutherford knew he could go back to this if he wanted to; I didn't see it coming, it fooled me.'
He discussed how insiders were absolutely convinced Boeser was going to sign somewhere else, and now he wonders if the Canucks silently knew the entire time he was coming back, and they kept it to themselves.
Perhaps Vancouver kept the cards closer to their chest than everyone would have anticipated.
The devotion to the club has never been in question for Boeser, and by returning, the Canucks get an unconditional injection in the top six.
Should the goal in Vancouver be to build off last season's mojo and move forward offensively, they needed to re-sign Boeser, and they did.
