Brock Boeser invited to Team USA’s WJC training camp

Photo Credit: Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports

There was very little suspense about whether or not Vancouver Canucks prospect Brock Boeser would be invited to Team USA’s pre-tournament camp ahead of the 2016 World Junior Championships. He was always going to be invited and you can probably feel pretty safe about penciling him onto the team.

Boeser, 18, was included on the list of players invited to Team USA’s orientation camp on Monday and is having a ridiculous freshman campaign with North Dakota of the NCAA. The skilled scoring winger is playing on one of the most lethal forward lines in the nation – alongside countryman and Chicago Blackhawks prospect Nick Schmaltz, who will probably be his centre during the World Junior Championship tournament – and is putting up absurd numbers. He currently leads all NCAA freshmen in goals, goals per game, total shots on goal and plus/minus. 

The Minnesota-born Boeser had another excellent weekend, lighting up Denver with a trio of glorious goals during a two-game series. He won’t have this much time and space in the professional ranks, but the release on his shot is just ludicrous:

The Canucks’ first-round pick at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft is having the sort of season where it might be in Vancouver’s best interest to push to get him signed as soon as this Spring. It already seems like he’s capable of playing the professional game, and a large handful of his comparables turned pro following their freshmen year.

I ran and preserved Boeser’s numbers through the PCS machine right before it went off-line, and freshmen forwards of a similar age and build who produced points at a similar rate to what Boeser is on pace to do this season have managed to appear in 200 or more NHL games more than 40 percent of the time. The list of recent comparable players includes Jonathan Toews, Thomas Vanek, Brandon Pirri and Kyle Okposo, as well as some lower lights like Chuck Kobasew and Jerry D’Amigo.

It’s still early yet, but Boeser has the sheen of a potential late first-round steal, and it’ll be interesting to see what he can accomplish with a loaded Team USA U20 team at the upcoming World Junior Championship.