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It was hard not to like Brock Boeser from the day the Canucks drafted him.

He was 18, but from a distance it appeared he carried himself as older than 18.

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It might have been that his dad, Duke, had already been battling Parkinson’s for several years, which could well help a kid grow up.

It might have been that a buddy of Boeser had died in a car accident the previous summer, when Brock was off at a hockey tournament. On draft day, Boeser told our Ben Kuzma, “It was a really tough time for me. I could have been in that car and was with them every day before I left for that tournament. Anyone could have been in that car.”

It’s been a wild year for Boeser. He goes 23rd overall in the NHL draft, then heads to the University of North Dakota, where he smashes scoring records previously held by guys such as Jonathan Toews and T.J. Oshie, then heads to the Frozen Four, where he leads his Fighting Hawks to their first national championship in 16 years. The kid is 19 and desperate Canucks fans are screaming for him to get his butt to Vancouver.