Had Petterson and Hughes not showed up, Boeser would’ve been the face of the Canucks franchise. Really have to put that in perspective. Boeser's first year, he looks like Kessel lite without the speed who could score 40 goals every year with his shot and nothing else. The following year, Petterson comes in and steals the spotlight and Boeser becomes a passenger. Then, he was putting up points this year, until they acquired the similar type of player in Toffoli, who took over Boeser's spot, when he got injured.
While, Boeser might be better than Toffoli offensively, he hasn't rounded his game yet. You can tell that he's working on his defensive side of the game, but you can hardly say it's complete. Toffoli is more reliable and is what Boeser projects to be. Boeser's a great character kid, so its hard to see him go but if Toffoli signs for 4.8 and Boeser's Qualifying offer is 7.5M. There's no way you keep the kid around. There's always a fascination with home grown kids, so you'd wanna keep him around if you can but there comes a point where has to show more.
It's a weird situation. He's on tracking to be better than other canucks legends like Naslund, Bertuzzi, and the Twins. It's when you have a monster of a player in Pettersson, it kind of puts a mark on where these Boeser types stand. You have him on any other Canucks' era and he's probably a Canuck for life. You'd think it would take a over payment to get him out of Vancouver still.