Brock Boeser to likely sign bridge deal

The 2019-20 regular season is fast approaching and one of the Canucks’ top forwards is still without a contract.

As the reports ooze out of more restricted free agents signing their contracts — Zach Werenski to a three-year deal, Ivan Provorov signing a deal soon — Brock Boeser and the Canucks have had recent talks, but there will be no deal coming soon.

As reported by Dan Murphy, the Canucks and Boeser’s representatives have had ongoing discussions as recent as several hours ago, but they are unfortunately nowhere near agreeing to a deal.

Vancouver’s first pre-season game is on Sept. 16, against the Calgary Flames and the winger will most likely be sitting on the sidelines. The winger reached a new career high last season, scoring 56 points through 69 games.

Similar to the recent reports that a four-year, $28-million contract is just waiting to be signed, Murphy mentions that a bridge deal is the most likely result of these discussions. Whether that is the reported four-year contract, or something closer to a three-year deal with a smaller cap hit, it appears that the seven-year deal that most fans hoped for, is not going to be the outcome.

The Canucks currently have just over $4.9-million in cap space, but are one player over the 23-player roster limit. With that amount of room and limited flexibility on the roster, Vancouver have the lower-AAV, short-term deal as the only realistic option if they want to get a deal done before the season starts on Oct. 2.

Boeser is one of several RFAs that are still waiting to agree on a deal before the season starts. If Werenski was the first domino to fall, then maybe we’re not too far off from seeing the push notification on our phones that Boeser has signed a new contract.