6 Trade Destinations for Brock Boeser amid NHL Rumors

If you haven't been paying attention, the Vancouver Canucks' season has gone off the rails on the ice and has been overwhelmed with drama off it. One player who was going to have a lot of attention on him come trade deadline time no matter what was scoring winger Brock Boeser, but even he isn't immune to scrutiny.

The 27-year-old has had a rough season offensively (15 goals, 14 assists in 39 games), and he's had one goal and three assists in the past 10 games. He's set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and after the monster year he had last season with a career-high 40 goals, his and the Canucks' struggles have his future in Vancouver hanging in the balance.

Boeser could be a valuable addition for any team whose playoff and Stanley Cup aspirations are a lot clearer than Vancouver's while Canucks GM Patrik Allvin figures out if or where he's trading J.T. Miller and/or Elias Pettersson.

Boeser would be easier to move but just as painful to let go because he wants to help right the ship in Vancouver, not leave it. Yet he knows the situation is up in the air while he doesn't have a contract extension to agree on.

Who needs a goal scorer? We've picked out a few teams that could use Boeser right now and could need him even more by the time the March 7 deadline hits.

We're going to get the obvious one out of the way with the Minnesota Wild.

Boeser is from Minnesota, and although the Wild classically love to bring Minnesotans home, this is one time when it would address a specific need to add another scorer to a team that's in the lower middle of the pack in the league in goals scored.

Consider that Boeser is not having as productive of a season as he would like, but his 15 goals would put him fourth on the Wild behind Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi. His 29 points would be fifth-best on the team, and you'd have to think Boeser going back home would have him all kinds of charged up.

The Wild are in a heck of a battle in the Central Division with Winnipeg ahead of them and Dallas and Colorado hot on their heels. They've gotten outstanding goaltending from Filip Gustavsson and Marc-André Fleury that has them holding things down extremely well, but juicing up the offense would help them out immensely come playoff time.

Would Vancouver want to deal with a Western Conference foe in any trade while it's right in the mix for the wild card though? It's a dicey proposition, but if the Canucks are going to have massive changes midseason, as long as the trade package is good, it shouldn't matter.

One of the league's hottest teams of late are the Detroit Red Wings. Ever since Todd McLellan took over as head coach, the Wings have been flying and have themselves heavily back in the wild-card mix.

The key for them to get ultra-serious about the playoffs is to fix their offense. Detroit is tied with Ottawa for 23rd in the league in goals.

Boeser would be fourth in goals and fifth in points on the Red Wings right now, and adding a guy who can shoot it the way he can and have him team up with Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond and Patrick Kane would allow the Wings to roll out a pair of lines that can cause a lot of problems.

Detroit's power play has carried them in a big way offensively, and they'll have to get the five-on-five side of things figured out ASAP. Boeser is a great weapon on the power play, but he can get it done the rest of the time as well.

How weird and dramatic are the Boston Bruins this year, and how strange is it that despite all of that, they're both a point back of the wild card and a point out of third place in the Atlantic Division?

If Boston can get its act together in the second half, it can make life miserable in the playoffs for a higher seeded team that was hoping to ease into the postseason. While goalie Jeremy Swayman has been improving as the season has gone on, the Bruins offense continues to struggle.

The Bruins are 21st in the league in scoring, and outside of David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, it's been scattershot as to who else will contribute to the offense. Adding Brock Boeser makes so much sense for the Bruins.

Right now, Boeser would be third in goals and points on the team, and as grim as that is in general, it highlights how important it would be to bring a guy like him into the mix.

Yes, the Bruins have questions at center, but their depth on the wing is tough, too. Adding a proven scorer to this group would give them another option to work with. Would Vancouver fans hate seeing a beloved player like Boeser going to Boston? They absolutely would, but the Bruins might be in a desperate enough position to be taken advantage of in a trade.

As if it isn't enough to have the Rangers connected to the Canucks already because of J.T. Miller rumors, if the price to land Miller is too high for the Rangers, perhaps taking a long look at Brock Boeser would be the move to make.

The Rangers have solid players up the middle with Mika Zibanejad, Filip Chytil and Vincent Trocheck, but they need help on the wing. Alexis Lafrenière and Reilly Smith are both solid guys on the right side, but beyond that it's Arthur Kaliyev, who they pulled off waivers, and Matt Rempe, who is not going to play in the top six or nine.

Adding Boeser would give them far more depth and answer a lot of questions about where else the goals will come from. His offensive numbers this season would be right in line with their other key players in the lineup.

The Rangers offense has been bland this season and adding a guy who scored 40 just last year could be the spark they need to continue their rally out of the darkness.

The Tampa Bay Lightning might be the scariest team outside the top four in the Eastern Conference, and what's scarier still is they can add to their lineup to get even stronger.

The Bolts offense is very good this season (third-most goals in the league), and they're tied for seventh in fewest goals allowed thanks to Andrei Vasilevskiy. Having Jon Cooper coaching them up and getting back to the old Lightning ways has worked, but wouldn't adding Brock Boeser make them terrifying?

Yes, they've got Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel scoring like mad, and Jake Guentzel has been a great addition to their group. They can grind you up with their bottom-six group and light you on fire with most of their top six. Adding Boeser, even as a rental, would strengthen them in every area.

Whether it's the power play or five-on-five, it would be the kind of sneaky luxury addition they've made in past years, and it would up the ante for everyone else in the East to seal up any of their apparent cracks in the roster as well.

Are the Pittsburgh Penguins a serious contender for the playoffs? Maybe? But they've got Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson, so they're going to try to keep the dream alive as best as they can.

What might help (or hinder) getting involved in trying to make a trade for Brock Boeser is how former Pens GM Jim Rutherford is the Canucks' president of hockey operations.

There's no real way for Penguins GM Kyle Dubas to play his cards tight to the chest in trying to negotiate with Vancouver because Rutherford knows what he's got for the most part.

Boeser on the Penguins would give them a clear offensive spark plug and a guy who would undoubtedly fit in well with Crosby or Malkin and would give them the offensive stud they lost when they traded Jake Guentzel last year.

Time is the Penguins' worst enemy, and if they're not going to pull things apart and rebuild, they've got to figure something out to get back to the playoffs. Boeser would help, although Pittsburgh has a lot of holes to address beyond that.