One can debate the wisdom of sending two first first-rounders to Tampa Bay to complete the Ryan Callahan-Martin St. Louis trade at the 2014 deadline, and there is certainly room for debate about dealing another first-rounder and Anthony Duclair to the Coyotes for Keith Yandle last year.
But at this moment, there is essentially no debate that allowing Anton Stralman to escape as a free agent in order to sign Dan Boyle on July 1, 2014, stands as Glen Sather’s most regrettable decision of the final 10 years of the Rangers president’s tenure as general manager.
It is generally absurd to draw conclusions based on a three-game sample, even more so when they are the first three games of the season. But it is not only three games — three deficient games — from Boyle. It is three games this year plus all of last season, in which No. 22 has been consistently dreadful in his own end and far less than advertised as a puck-mover.
Or are we to believe Boyle still needs more time to learn Alain Vigneault’s system?
Boyle does hit some high notes on the power play, though he isn’t close to what he was when he was running the show for Tampa Bay, or in his first years in San Jose, when his shot was as much a weapon as his legs.
And he can be very effective as a puck hawk in the offensive zone. Indeed, Boyle is at his best from the tops of the offensive circles down. But that doesn’t make up for the other 150 feet or so on the rink, including the 11 feet behind the Blueshirts’ net and the area in front of it.
Boyle, publicly one of the least accountable players to come down the pike here in a while (which is not to suggest he is or is not accountable in his interactions with the coaching staff, for that’s a behind-the-blue-door kind of thing), is 39 and on the final season of his two-year, $9 million, over-35 contract that includes a no-move clause.
This means that unless he volunteers to go, and unless there is a team out there willing to take the righty defenseman, Boyle’s $4.5M cap hit will be on the books for the remainder of the season. But that shouldn’t guarantee him a spot in the lineup.
Fact is, the Rangers need to find out about Dylan McIlrath, scratched the first three games. Barring injury to a defenseman, chances are nil that the rookie would make his 2015-16 debut in Montreal on Thursday, so that makes Tuesday’s match at the Garden against the Jets a possibility if Vigneault is willing to make a change.
Boyle is a stubborn guy. He earned his no-move clause and has every right to stick to it. But he doesn’t seem to be a fit. Put aside Boyle’s issues in his own end and his difficulty winning battles. More to the point is that the predicate of Vigneault’s system is the quick first pass out of the zone, but Boyle still wants to carry the puck the way he always did. (Which he no longer is capable of, anyway.)
On a team in which everyone is a part of it, somehow Boyle seems apart from it. Doesn’t make him a bad guy, but it hasn’t exactly worked as it was drawn up here. And it doesn’t seem to be getting better.
Meanwhile, the 29-year-old Stralman has built on that 2014 playoff performance to become half of what could be the best first pair in the NHL, partnering with Victor Hedman in Tampa Bay.
The Rangers lusted after Boyle for years. Boyle made it clear he always wanted to play in New York. Both parties should have been careful what they wished for.