Islanders retool should focus on trading for Brock Boeser

Retool. It's what most New York Islanders fans believe needs to happen in the offseason. They need to bring in top-end offensive talent that can score. Oh, and maybe a top-four defender too. But mainly the scoring threat.

That's where Brock Boeser may step in. Bleacher Report's Lyle Richardson mused that the Cancuks winger could be available this offseason.

New York Islanders: Brock Boeser fits the rebuild plan

Since entering the league in 2017-18 Boeser is 48th in the league for goals with 109. The only player on the Islanders with more in that span is Anders lee with 114 goals since 2017-18.

The right-shot winger has paced out to 30+ goals in four of his six NHL seasons. In 2019-20 he hit a bit of a wall and only paced out to 23 goals while this year his 15 goals in 48 games have him on pace for 26 goals. So at worst he's a 23 goal scorer.

That's the type of goal scoring the Islanders are missing at the moment. Making Boeser a perfect candidate for an Islanders team looking to spend in order to bring in the piece(s) they're missing.

Now is he available? Well, if you ask Boeser he isn't. Thomas Drance recently spoke to Boeser specifically about trade rumors and the now 24-year-old forward had a pretty direct answer to the rumors (subscription required):

"“I personally don’t think I’m going to get traded,” Boeser said. “I feel like I’m part of the core here and a big piece. That’s just how I feel."

Brock Boeser

But that $7.5 million qualifying offer the Canucks would have to make to keep him as an RFA leads to other conclusions. That type of qualifying offer is a lot considering the Canucks only have ~$12 million in cap space (assuming the cap goes up to $82.5 million as Bettman suggested). A $7.5 million qualifying offer chews up 63% of that cap space.

Now, if Vancouver moves J.T. Miller in the trade deadline that cap space issue is no more

He won't be cheap to acquire if the Canucks entertain trading him, but you've got to give to get. So if high price makes you squeamish a retool is going to make you uncomfortable because that's what the Islanders have to do.