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Brock Boeser was out golfing with some buddies on July 29 and, for all intents and purposes, it was shaping up to be a great day.

And then his phone rang.

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In the tense moments that followed, Boeser contemplated the scariest thoughts any child can have about a parent.

His dad, Duke, was diagnosed earlier this summer with a recurrence of lung cancer thathad also spread to his liver and bones. That was difficult enough to deal with.

His sister was on the other end of the phone, sharing that their father was now experiencing bigger problems. He was suffering from heart failure because of a blood clot that had moved into his lungs.

As he and his friends piled into a car and raced to hospital, Boeser wondered if his dad would survive.

“On that ride, those thoughts were there,” Boeser revealed Wednesday, speaking with the Vancouver media for the first time since signing a new three-year, $17,625,000 contract.