There were a number of off the board selections in the first round, of the 2015 draft, but Brock Boeser at 23 wasn’t one of them.

Rhys did a nice overview on Boeser following the selection, and as we can see in the scouting profiles, he’s a dynamic offensive threat with high-end scoring potential that needs to work on his skating and defensive game. At 23rd overall, Brock Boeser was picked right about were he was expected to go in terms of both PCS of 33% (roughly 25 – 35 range), and consensus experts (mid-20s).

At first glance, Boeser’s 35 goals, 68 point season may seem underwhelming in comparison to some of his CHL peers, but he actually was 3rd in league scoring as a rookie, as the USHL tends to have lower scoring overall than the three CHL leagues.

This was Boeser’s first full year in the USHL, after playing only 8 regular season games as a 16 year-old. As we can see he really established himself this year, leading the USHL in scoring this year (35 goals) and contributing 19% of Black Hawks team goals and 37% of team points. Those percentages compare pretty favorably to some of the top names in this draft class, such as Mitch Marner (13%/47%), Dylan Strome (11%/29%), Matthew Barzal (6%/42%), and Timo Meier (13%/43%), and it’s no surprise Boeser was named to both the First All Star Team and All Rookie team.

Here are some highlights of his 2014-15 season for Waterloo:

Boeser was one of the most intimidating shooters in the league last year, posing significant challenges to opposing goalies both in terms of shot volume (4.2 shots/game) and accuracy (15% shooting percentage).

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As we can see, Boeser has a number of tools in his arsenal. He has a lightning quick release on his wrist shot, which is both hard and accurate, and he clearly has a knack for finding open space. With good speed and hands, he was able to generate a ton of offense driving hard to the net, a trait Benning seems to value highly, and with good reason.

He followed up his standout rookie season in the USHL with an excellent Hlinka Memorial tournament, scoring 6 goals and 8 points, in five games as captain of Team USA. Here is a clip from his game against Sweden, where his excellent one-timer is on display:

With Boeser set to join the University of North Dakota this fall, he won’t be joining the Canucks for the Young Stars Tournament in Penticton next month, but he’ll likely get a long look at earning a spot on the US team for this year’s World Juniors.

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While the Canucks have made significant strides to improve their prospect depth through the 2013 and 2014 drafts, they still went into the 2015 draft with a middle of the pack prospect pipeline, at best. When you’re in a scenario like that, you really need to nail your first overall pick, and I think they did that with the selection of Brock Boeser at 23.

While he may have been a bit off the radar for most fans in Canada, as compared to his peers in the CHL, to me its clear they’ve found a player with excellent offensive potential. Boeser’s closest PCS comparables include players like Justin Abdelkader and Kyle Okposo. If Boeser turns into a player of the calibre of the latter of those two names, needless to say it will have been a home run for Benning.

Here is one last video of Boeser’s excellent 2014-15 season.





