Canucks: What does a boune-back season look like for Brock Boeser in 2025-2026?

The Vancouver Canucks need Brock Boeser to score goals. Lots of goals. Certainly more goals than he scored last season.

With his new seven year/$50M contract in hand, the Burnsville, MN native is one of several Canucks that has to be hoping he’s put last season in the rear view mirror. Between an early-season concussion, the trade of his most frequent centre and uncertainty over his own future in Vancouver, Boeser clearly had plenty on his plate last season, which explains to some degree his drop from a career-high 40 goals to 25.

And while many of the distractions have disappeared, the 28-year-old still has much to prove about his ability to be an elite finisher for this hockey club. The 40-goal campaign in 2023-24 may prove to be an outlier, but there’s no reason Boeser can’t be a 30-goal guy for the Canucks. And, in fact, the team likely needs him to reach that threshold for it to be competitive in the Pacific Division and Western Conference. 

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding Boeser is who he’ll play with next season. A fixture on JT Miller’s wing for the past few seasons, Boeser is likely to find himself on right wing with Elias Pettersson. It feels like those two, who have spent time together in the past, have to find a way to make things work again because, on the surface, Boeser does not appear to be a fit with Filip Chytil. In 87 minutes at 5-on-5 with Boeser and Chytil together last season, the Canucks did not generate a goal and gave up a pair. It’s a small sample, but the two play very different styles, and there really wasn’t much to suggest a long-term fit.

So Boeser and Pettersson will likely skate with Jake DeBrusk (or possibly Nils Höglander or even Evander Kane) on what will amount to the team’s top line. They’ll likely see the toughest matchups and best defenders that opponents have to offer. That will present a severe challenge for Boeser to regain the scoring touch he displayed two seasons ago. 

Any success will likely start with increased shot volume. Although Boeser has evolved as a player through the years, he still has the ability to be a one-shot scorer. But last season, he registered just 149 shots on goal compared to 204 the year before. His shooting percentage in each of the past two seasons (19.6% and 17.2%) has eclipsed his career average of 14.1%. So he has benefitted from some bounces in the past two seasons, even if his modest total of 25 goals last season may not reflect it.

Of those 25 goals, Boeser scored nine on the power play and 15 times on home ice. However, overall at even strength, the Canucks were outscored by 19 last season with Boeser on the ice. And unfortunately for him, he was a team worst minus-25 on the season with no teammate within 10 of that mark. As a front-line player, Boeser needs to carry a positive goal differential if this team is going to push for a playoff spot.

Brock Boeser exceeding expectations

Brock Boeser will exceed expectations next season if he scores 35 goals and registers more than 65 points. To do that, he will need to reestablish some chemistry with Elias Pettersson. The Canucks likely need Boeser to be a double-digit goal scorer on the power play. If he can do all of those things, it stands to help the Canucks push for a playoff spot. Getting this team beyond the first round of the playoffs for the second time in three years would also exceed early expectations.

Brock Boeser meeting expectations

Brock Boeser will meet expectations if he reaches the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career and finds a way to produce 60 points. He admitted it was a difficult adjustment to life without JT Miller, and it showed in his play late in the season. But Miller is no longer here, and that is Boeser’s reality now. He can’t lean on that as a crutch. He is being paid to be a high-end producer, and the Canucks need him to live up to those standards. In order for Boeser’s season to meet expectations, the Canucks have to find their way back to the postseason.

Brock Boeser not living up to expectations

Anything less than 30 goals will be a disappointing season for Boeser. There is no other way to look at it. He should push to lead the team in goals, but ultimately, where he finishes in team ranking isn’t all that important. It’s a bottom-line business, and the Canucks need Brock Boeser to be one of their top goal scorers. Now more than 10 years in the organization since being drafted in 2015, Boeser has been part of the group that has changed the course of this organization over the past decade. Missing the playoffs yet again would also amount to a massive disappointment.

Through the years, Brock Boeser has found a way to grow his game from a one-time shooting threat to more of a savvy, net-front presence with impeccable timing for screening goaltenders. Boeser will need to use everything in his toolbox next season to get back to being the goal-scoring danger this team needs him to be. Hopefully, he’ll arrive back in town in a good frame of mind and with contract certainty that will allow him to be the type of leader the Canucks need him to be.