Brock Boeser Reflects on Death of his Father

Vancouver Canucks' star forward Brock Boeser had a rough year off the ice last season. His father, Duke Boeser, passed away on May 27 following years and years of unfortunate events and medical diagnoses.

For Duke, the list of medical concerns was extensive. Duke was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2010. He suffered traumatic brain injury in a car accident in 2012. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017 and suffered a pulmonary embolism in 2019. Following this clot, Duke was clinically dead, but 15 minutes of CPR brought him back for three more years of fighting.

After months of retrospect, Brock reports, "He was my biggest fan for sure... My dream was his dream [with hockey]." He describes his father as a laid-back hockey dad: always encouraging, never harsh. Duke, and Brock's mother, Laurie, came to all of his high school games in Minnesota, watched all of his North Dakota games, and eventually, followed his NHL very closely. Duke was always available for a post-game call for Brock.

As his father continued to deteriorate during the 21-22 season, Brock would Facetime with his parents frequently. He went home to Minnesota during the winter break, and saw for himself the grave prognosis of his biggest fan. Two month later, he visited again during the Olympic break, and the dementia took a firm grasp.

Despite trying to focus on hockey, Brock was distracted, "It was pretty cruel to watch from afar. I don't think anyone really understands unless you've been through it how hard it is to go through during a season, especially when you leave and he is fine and you come home and he is a little worse and then you come home and he can barely walk. I was mentally tired at certain points during the season because I was so stressed out. It was hard for me to have that passion each and every night."

After soliciting help from a life coach, Brock is heading into the 22-23 season with new vigor. Brock commented, "I'm really excited to be able to be straightforward, clear-minded, for each and every game, because last year was hard,» Brock says. «I'm really going to try to focus on the game at hand and help our team win and me producing. I scored 23 goals last year in a pretty distracted, down year. So I'm really happy and excited to get back and show what I can do."

Canucks' coach Bruce Boudreau is eager to see Boeser this season, "There's been a lot going on in that young man's life. I can't wait to see him this year."

More details on Michael Russo's interview with Brock Boeser can be found in his article at The Athletic:

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