After attending the Toronto Maple Leafs’ training camp on a tryout agreement, veteran forward Brad Boyes made the team. He was signed to a one-year deal by the club Sunday. According to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, the deal is worth $700,000.
This is the second time in Boyes’ career that he has earned a contract after attending camp on a tryout basis. He made the Florida Panthers out of camp ahead of the 2013-14 campaign and managed to stick with the team for two seasons. The Panthers then bought out the final year of his contract earlier this summer.
The 33-year-old certainly isn’t going to light the league on fire again like he did as a one-time 43-goal scorer with the St. Louis Blues, but he does provide some solid scoring depth and experience to a team in transition.
Boyes has 762 games of NHL experience, having played with the Blues, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, San Jose Sharks and Panthers. Oddly enough, this is the first time he’ll play for the Maple Leafs, which is the team that originally drafted him into the league in the first round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. He was included in the package the Maple Leafs used to acquire Owen Nolan in a trade with the Sharks in 2003.
In 2013-14, Boyes posted a surprising 21-goal season with Florida. It was the first time he hit the 20-goal mark since scoring 33 in 2008-09 with St. Louis. Last year, however, his goal total took a dip. Boyes posted 14 goals and 24 assists in 78 games with Florida.
Toronto had some holes to plug and a cheap one-year deal with an established veteran is clearly a stopgap signing. Boyes beat out fellow veterans like Curtis Glencross and Devin Setoguchi who were also in Maple Leafs camp on tryout contracts.
In 11 NHL seasons, Boyes has scored 203 goals and compiled 481 points.
