After eight years and a $50.75 million contract extension, Brock Boeser can finally afford a house in Vancouver.
I kid, I kid, but Boeser is finally considering buying a house now that he knows he’s in Vancouver for the long term. Simply put, Boeser loves the city and he loves the people.
“[The fans] have been so supportive of me, not just with hockey, but away from the rink, and that means the world to me,” said Boeser on Wednesday after signing his new contract. “Everyone’s so kind outside when they see you. When you’re just out and about, people say, ‘Hi,” and everyone’s so kind and respectful. It means a lot to me.
“I’ve said many times, Vancouver feels like my second home. It’s just so comfortable and I love it there, so maybe I can get a house there now.”
"I was fully set on going somewhere else"
It’s understandable that Boeser has been hesitant to get into the housing market in Vancouver until now. After all, the possibility of being traded has been in the back of Boeser’s mind for years, particularly in 2022 and this past season, when he was in the final year of a contract.
His short-term contracts are part of the reason why those rumours have been constant, as Boeser has never had anything longer than a three-year deal. Now he’s locked in for seven years, with a full no-movement clause for the first four years, so he can finally settle down and trust that he won’t be hearing any more trade rumours for a long time.
“I’m just happy personally that I don’t have to deal with another bridge deal and play through that,” said Boeser. “I’m just happy that I got the seven years and I can just focus on playing hockey and helping our team win games.”
The truth is that Boeser never wanted to leave. Even when it seemed certain that he was gone, it never seemed to be his choice to go. He’s been part of the Canucks organization for a decade since he was drafted in the first round in 2015, but he had to grapple with the possibility of playing for another team.
“In my head, I was fully set on going somewhere else,” said Boeser. “I had a list of teams in my head that I thought maybe would be good fits. I was still kind of uneasy about everything. And then they called.”
Boeser said he tried to go to the gym on the morning of free agency — “I don’t know why I thought I’d be able to train and work out,” he said. He had to leave, as he spent the entire time talking on the phone. Eventually, he sat down to talk to his agent, Ben Hankinson, and wade through all the different options.
“I was talking to Ben, just kind of going over everything and trying to get an idea of what could happen,” said Boeser. “Then he said Patrik was calling him, and that kind of raised my eyebrows. I was like, okay, maybe we can figure something out here.”
"I just knew it was meant to be"
Before Allvin called, Boeser was also hearing plenty from teammates like Thatcher Demko and Conor Garland, who signed contract extensions on July 1, with Garland joking that he was talking to Boeser more than his own wife.
That’s the thing: Boeser has developed some deep friendships and has major emotional ties to Vancouver and the Canucks. As much as the NHL is a business, Boeser couldn’t take the emotional element out of it.
“It was hard. I mentally tried to throw scenarios in my head on different teams I could possibly see myself being on and tried to envision it, but that can only get you so far,” said Boeser. “Just thinking about it, I just felt in my stomach, I still had a weird feeling about everything.”
When Allvin came calling, Boeser said he “lit up” because, until that moment, he was convinced there was no chance he was ever going to play for the Canucks again.
“It felt like the door shut a couple of times there,” said Boeser. “So, I really had to wrap my head around moving on…My head was spinning a lot, and it was hard to grasp.
“That phone call kind of came out of nowhere, so it was definitely a shock to me. But the way I felt when that phone call came, I told my agent, ‘Get a deal done.’”
It didn’t matter how that phone call came about, with reports indicating that the Canucks took a run at signing Mikael Granlund and Christian Dvorak before turning back to Boeser. It didn't matter that Boeser had felt disrespected by Allvin's comments at the trade deadline — something Allvin subsequently apologized for — and that so much had gone wrong in the past year. When that phone call came, Boeser knew he wanted nothing more than to stay in Vancouver.
"Even after everything that’s happened, I still had that feeling in my stomach and I just listened to it," said Boeser. "It felt right when they started talking and trying to figure out a deal. I started getting excited, and I just knew it was meant to be.”
