With the Vancouver Canucks sliding into rebuild mode, Brock Boeser has become the kind of name that naturally lands on Ottawa’s radar. He checks a box the Senators still need to fill: a proven top-six winger who can score. But the closer you get to the fit, the more the deal starts to wobble.
Boeser has the résumé that makes him appealing. He’s got six 20-goal seasons, and his best trait is the one Ottawa could use most - finding space and finishing.
The Senators could certainly have used that in the playoffs this year. On paper, he looks like a clean answer to a real need.
There’s also a little connective tissue here. Steve Staios recently had some trade back-and-forth with Vancouver, which tried and failed to move up in the June draft and get Ottawa’s first-round pick at 25th overall.
The Senators also have Boeser’s cousin, Dan, working in scouting. Those details don’t make a trade, but they do make the idea a little less far-fetched.
Still, the practical hurdles are hard to ignore.
Boeser has a no move clause for the next three years, and he signed a long-term deal last summer after taking less money than he could have gotten elsewhere because, in his words, his “heart was still in Vancouver.” If he had been desperate to leave, that likely would have happened then. Maybe the Canucks’ collapse changes the mood, but nobody signing up for a rebuild wants to do it for long unless the situation really makes sense.
And Vancouver’s situation comes with a big warning label: Boeser hasn’t come close to repeating his 2023-24 explosion. That season was a monster - 40 goals, 73 points, and seven goals and 12 points in 12 playoff games.
It was also the clear outlier on his ledger. Before that, he’d never scored more than 29 goals or posted more than 56 points in a season, and his shooting percentage shot up to 19.6 percent, well above his career average of 14 percent.
The two seasons around that breakout have been much more ordinary. He had 25 goals and 50 points the year before last, then 22 goals and 48 points in 75 games last season.
Those aren’t bad numbers, especially in a dysfunctional environment, but they’re not the kind of production that screams value at a $7.25-million cap hit. His 2025-26 season also ended with a minus-48 rating, and while plus-minus has its flaws, that number is impossible to breeze past.
That’s the real decision point for Ottawa. Is the 40-goal version of Boeser the real one, or was that season the peak?
If it’s the former, he’s a major add. If it’s the latter, the Senators may already have internal answers who can climb the lineup and give them something close to that production without costing assets.
The contract only sharpens the question. Boeser’s seven-year, $50.75-million deal runs through 2031-32, when he’ll be 35.
If Ottawa had simply been able to sign him for money last summer, the debate would have looked very different. Once a trade comes into the picture, the price changes fast.
And that’s where Vancouver has the leverage. Even with Boeser’s uneven recent stretch, the Canucks would still have every reason to ask for picks, prospects or young NHL talent from a rebuilding standpoint.
Ottawa has only recently started to restock its prospect pool, so any meaningful deal could mean parting with pieces the organization would rather keep. Salary would also have to be shuffled to make it work while preserving flexibility.
Staios, who likes to keep things flexible, would probably at least make the call. There’s no harm in finding out what Vancouver wants, and Boeser could be the kind of player who benefits from a fresh start the way Dylan Cozens did in 2025.
But unless the asking price comes in much lower than expected, Ottawa should probably keep looking. There’s a real chance Boeser’s last couple of seasons are simply the new baseline. If that’s the case, the Senators may be better off turning to their own options instead of paying for a name that might not deliver enough of a bump.
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