‘Dad’s smiling in heaven’: Canucks’ Brock Boeser, and his biggest fans, enjoying a special season

Brock Boeser’s grandmother is 97 years old and still lives on her own in the Madison area of Wisconsin, where she grew up. Most of Brock’s home games with the Vancouver Canucks start at 9 p.m. CT, but Grandma Elaine has plenty of energy to stay up to the very end.

Every game day, Brock looks forward to the arrival, like clockwork, of a voicemail from his “G’ma” left just before puck drop.

And anytime he scores a goal, Brock knows he can go to his phone after the game and find a voicemail from her left seconds after that goal.

This season, Brock has gotten 30 pregame voicemails and 22 in-game voicemails, including three Tuesday night, when he recorded his fifth career hat trick and became the first Canucks player in 37 years to record two natural hat tricks in the same season.

His favorite voicemail from that win over the Tampa Bay Lightning?

“You’re melting the ice out there, Brocky.”

Laurie Boeser also stays up late into the night to watch her son’s hockey games from inside her Burnsville, Minn., home. It’s something she used to do with her husband, Duke, and it’s something that gives her solace since Duke’s passing on May 27, 2022.

And every time her 26-year-old son scores, she also knows that after her mom leaves that voicemail for Brock, her phone will be the next to ring.

“Every time he scores, that’s our deal,” Laurie Boeser says. “She calls me, and then we both sit there and hoot and holler to each other. And then she goes, ‘I hope I’m calling you again … I hope.’ And so (Tuesday) night was a lot of fun because she called me three times, and that’s pretty crazy on one hand, but it sure is special on the other.

“I’m usually able to fall asleep after most games, but (Tuesday) night was a tough one to go to sleep after because it definitely got the old heart pumping with the win and the game that he had.”

Left: Brock Boeser with his mom, Laurie, and her dogs, Coolie and Milo. Right: Boeser with his “G’ma” Elaine. (Photos courtesy of Laurie Boeser)

What a first third of a season it has been for Boeser professionally, after a tumultuous one last season. In his first season without his biggest fan, Duke, rooting him on from afar, Boeser struggled out of the gate, dealt with an injury and could have been traded as his agent, Ben Hankinson, was working in tandem with general manager Patrik Allvin to find him a new home.

But after scoring 18 goals in 74 games last season, Boeser already has 22 in 30 games this season, second in the NHL behind two-time Rocket Richard winner Auston Matthews. Boeser’s nine power-play goals rank first in the NHL and his shooting percentage of 27.5 ranks third amongst players who have skated in at least 27 games. He’s the fifth Canuck in history to score 22 goals through the 30-game mark, joining Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Bo Horvat and Tony Tanti.

Heading into Saturday’s road matinee against his home-state Minnesota Wild, inside the arena where he made his NHL debut and scored his first NHL goal, Boeser has scored nine goals on a ridiculous 36 percent shooting and 14 points in his past nine games.

While Boeser is excited about his season individually, he doesn’t want to focus on the fact he’s one of only three NHL players with more than 17 this season. He got a new trainer last summer and was out the door every morning starting May 1 — nine days after returning from Vancouver — to get ready for this season. He’s seeing the benefits of that hard work.

But he’s more excited about the Canucks as a whole and how much they’ve all taken to Rick Tocchet since he became coach in January. They’ve missed the playoffs eight of the past nine seasons and four in a row, and now Boeser is a key cog on a team that has the second-most points (41) in the NHL and the fifth-best points percentage (.683).

“I think we’re just sick of losing,” Boeser says. “And we knew we had to raise our standard. And I think we set a pretty good example for the new guys of getting here early and working hard. It’s been good so far, but we want to continue to raise that standard and hopefully make the playoffs for the city.”

If you know Boeser or have read about Boeser, you know how close he was with Duke, who was the ultimate fighter through years of health problems.

In the last 12 years of his life, Duke was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, suffered a brain injury and lacerated spleen in a car crash, had two bouts of cancer, suffered a pulmonary embolism that caused his heart to stop and had dementia.

GO DEEPER

'My dream was his dream': Canucks' Brock Boeser turns focus to hockey after a year of pain and loss

To watch his dad endure such agony from afar, knowing his mom was the sole caregiver, took a toll on Boeser.

With Duke no longer suffering, Boeser hoped to enter last season with a clear mind. But the grief became too much at times.

“I shed a lot of tears last year for him,” Laurie Boeser says. “I think a mom instinctively wants their kids to do well in whatever they do. Professionally, it was really hard to watch him going through such a difficult process of grief, and then you wish you were there to help him get through it. With his career, being a pro hockey player, he’s on such a visible stage, and sometimes I kind of wished, I don’t know, he could have that private time go through the process of grief not in front of an entire hockey market.

“But that’s the reality of the job he has. It is a very visible job. So let’s put it this way, when he didn’t achieve success last year, that’s when I would cry.”

Duke Boeser, Brock Boeser’s father, was in a constant fight for the final 12 years of his life. (Courtesy of Brock Boeser)

Boeser never wanted to leave Vancouver, but there’s no doubt he was struggling and there’s no doubt the Canucks were willing to trade him, in large part to create salary-cap flexibility, even though he was in the first season of a three-year, $19.95 million contract.

Hankinson had permission to talk to other teams about a potential trade. Allvin got offers but none enticing enough for him to pull the trigger. The reality is, Boeser’s stock was low because his production wasn’t matching up with his new contract.

One team that was hoping to make it work was the Wild, the team that plays 19 miles from his hometown. But the Wild are in cap hell and GM Bill Guerin couldn’t find a way to free the cap space needed to add the right-shot sniper.

“It’s just fun to sit back and watch and not have to help Brock through anything. Last year wasn’t a lot of fun,” Hankinson says. “Vancouver was great, but there was no secret last year we were trying to figure out what to do, where he fit in, and going through that trade process for Brock. It wasn’t something that he was pounding the table and wanting to get traded. But it’s funny how things work out now with the success he’s having and the team is having. Thankfully, he never got traded.”

Hankinson talked to Allvin last week, and the GM shares the sentiment.

“He’s a very patient hockey man, where he didn’t rush to any decisions all along,” Hankinson says. “He liked Brock, too. … It’s nice to see it work out so far for those guys and see his team doing so well. Mostly, it’s awesome because I dealt with Brock a lot last year, talked to him on a regular basis, and this year? Not so much.”

“Last year was a rough year overall, just playing-wise and mentally and with the trade rumors,” Boeser says. “So I’m happy. I’m happy that I’m still here and I never got traded. I love Vancouver. It’s been great to me. The city’s been great. The fans have been great.”

And as rough as the season was, it was also a lesson for Boeser, his mom says.

“It was the reality of: This is life. This is a business,” Laurie says. “Take the personal side out of it and how much the Canucks like Brock. But if you’re struggling and they feel they can fill your skates with somebody else, that’s the reality of how life goes.”

But as Boeser says, “Everything happens for a reason.”

And let’s put it this way, Hankinson is no longer working with the Canucks to trade his client.

“It’ll be interesting to see how the team goes and how Brock goes,” Hankinson says. “He’s an elite goal-scorer, and he’s still got a lot to prove. He’s hungry, he’s motivated, he’s playing with a ton of confidence and that team is clicking for sure. So, I think he’d love to stay there for a long, long time.”

Teammates couldn’t be more thrilled about the way Boeser is playing.

As veteran defenseman Ian Cole says, “He’s such a good dude, and he’s so low-key and just chill and really, really cares. But also, he’s not a high-anxiety guy, which I think is so good for a situation like this, where he’s having a ton of success. He’s just doing his thing and not turning into this monster. He’s just a really, really great person.”

And goalie Thatcher Demko: “I know how much work (Brock) has put in — physically, mentally, spiritually — trying to get to his full potential.”

Laurie watches all of Tocchet’s press conferences and loves how much he talks about her son’s development.

“Besides scoring goals, his game is definitely a more well-rounded game now with all the specific things Tocchet and (assistant coach Mike Yeo) work with him on,” she says.

Brock Boeser has already scored more goals than he did all of last season. (Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images)

“Coaching against him from afar and then working with him, everybody knew that he could shoot the puck,” Yeo says. “Everybody knew that he had the potential to score goals, but I think he’s doing so much more than that this year. The way that he’s competing, not only with the puck but without the puck, the way he’s protecting the puck, it’s so improved. He’s a really underrated playmaker and he has the puck on the stick so much more this year.

“He’s really grown in the leadership role. His whole play is evolved. He’s on the ice at the end of the game when the goalie’s pulled for the other team because we trust the defensive game.”

Boeser often mentions how he’s in a good mental place. You can sense how a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, knowing Duke is at peace.

Duke was a one-of-a-kind personality and a great role model, a great father. Now Boeser feels he has a guardian angel always looking over him.

“When you go through something traumatic like that, it takes a lot from you,” Boeser says. “It takes a lot. It’s very heavy on you, and everyone copes with it differently. And especially when you’re … I’m away for nine months of the year, eight months. It can be hard being away from family and not dealing with it. So, I think I’m just feeling better about all that has really helped me get back to my game.”

Hankinson sees it.

“To think that stress didn’t carry on the ice and in the locker room is obviously not the case,” he says. “I think he lost a lot of his love for the game.

“It’s easy to say hockey is a way to get away from it, but then when you’re at the rink and you’re losing and you’re putting a lot more pressure on yourself to score and squeezing the stick, it’s hard to be successful when you’re not feeling good. It would affect anyone in their work, let alone if you’re being measured by thousands of people watching you and critiquing you every day at work.

“Right now, Brock is in a great place and we’re seeing that with the way he’s playing.”

Boeser will fly to Minnesota on Friday with his teammates and host a dinner at his house for immediate family and friends. He can’t wait to embrace his mom, who’s also excited that he’ll be home for Christmas.

In November, Laurie traveled to Vancouver to watch her son play three games. It was the first time she went by herself since Duke died.

“I got on the plane and got pretty teary-eyed because I was just like, ‘God, I wish Duke was sitting in the seat next to me,’” Laurie says. “He’d be so, so proud of what Brock is doing. I let Brock know that when I text him after every game.

“I say, ‘We’re smiling in Minnesota and Dad’s smiling in heaven.’”

(Top photos: Derek Cain / Getty Images and courtesy of Laurie Boeser)