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When Boeser, 19 and in his sophomore season, is coming to Vancouver for good remains open to interpretation.

Quizzed about that several different ways in a phone call this week, the 6-foot-1, 200 pounder from Burnsville, Minn., neatly shucked and jived, like you might expect.

Boeser talked about seeing how this season played out. The No. 23 selection from two drafts ago mentioned taking it one step at a time. At one point, he even went on about if he “made the Canucks one day.”

One day? One day? What are you doing Tuesday, Brock?

With all that, there are bound to be skeptics out there who maintain that his answers are shady and are part of him not wanting to come to Vancouver. More likely, he’s just trying to keep the focus on this season at North Dakota and not throw out quotes that provide distraction.

He’s brought up wanting to be a leader in various interviews this year; he’s an alternate captain with North Dakota, becoming the first sophomore in the program to wear an ‘A’ since Jonathan Toews did it a decade ago.

Keep in mind, too, that six of the last 11 national champions have failed to make the NCAA tournament and only one of the past eight have won a game at the tournament the following season. North Dakota, despite losing nine players from last year’s roster to graduation and the pros, would seem to be able to buck that trend, since they were the No. 1 ranked squad in the preseason in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls.