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When training camp started many, including coach Tortorella,
wrote off Brian Boyle as a member of the New York Rangers. What has happened instead is Brian Boyle has
turned into arguably the most important player to where the team is right now. Boyle
is now the team leader in goals scored with eighteen in 52 games played this
season. His eighteen tallies rank him 25th
in the league in goals. Those eighteen
goals for Boyle are not only a career high for a season, but they are six more
than his career total coming into this year (107 games).
Boyle has transformed to the point where the last three
games, at different points, he has been put with Marian Gaborik to spark the
offense. If anyone tells you they had
imagined that before the season began, they are absolute liars. Beyond the goal
scoring alone, so many of the things that Boyle does for this team are why, at
the All-Star break, the team would not be in sixth place in the Eastern
Conference without him. The question now
is has Boyle’s emergence as a legitimate two-way threat and all the great
things it has meant for the Rangers this season made him someone that will
cause a problem for the team this summer.
Here you have a 26-year-old center who has finally learned
how to use his size and strength to his advantage, can play in all situations
and is showing goal scoring touch that is up for a new contract. On the unrestricted market he easily tops 3
million per season, but what will he get as a restricted free agent this
summer? Can the Rangers afford to keep
him? Can the Rangers afford to let him
walk away?
The team will have five get restricted free agents this
summer including Boyle. Brandon Dubinsky
and Ryan Callahan are due for raises and musts in terms of the foundation of
this team. Artem Anisimov is also due
for a raise but given his lack of arbitration rights and his up and down season
it will not be for as much as it appeared he was heading for when the year
started. Finally, there is Michael Sauer
who is another player that has turned himself from on the outside looking in
into a key cog in the Rangers team. All
of these moves have to be considered in the context of whether or not the
Rangers will sign Brad Richards and/or buyout Chris Drury.
It is rare that you get a center the size of Boyle who can
score 25-30 goals in a season, kill penalties and be a tremendous influence in
your locker room. The question is what
price-tag does the combination of things Brian Boyle brings the Rangers merit
and where does he rank in terms of priorities this offseason? He has to be a priority and the Rangers would certainly bring him back if the number can stay at or near what Matt Moulson got after a similar breakout year as a 26-year-old (2.45 million). Certainly a good problem to have right now,
and will once again make the Rangers offseason one to watch.
