Bradley Keith Boyes (born April 17, 1982) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, who spent thirteen seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of seven different teams.
Boyes made his NHL debut in 2003 for the San Jose Sharks, but only played in one game before returning to the AHL. He returned to the NHL during the 2005-2006 season with the Boston Bruins, playing for the team for two seasons before being traded to the St. Louis Blues in 2007, where he had his longest stint at five seasons. Traded to the Buffalo Sabres in 2010, he remained with the team for two seasons before being acquired by the New York Islanders in 2012. After one season with the Islanders, Boyes spent the next two seasons with the Florida Panthers, before playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2015-2016 season.
Early life
Boyes went to Hazel McCallion Senior Public School and Clarkson Secondary School, both in Mississauga, before moving to Erie, Pennsylvania. His mother is a teacher. His father is a school principal, and was the principal of Champlain Trail Public School. His father is also one of the directors of the Streetsville Hockey League, a small house league based in Streetsville.[1]
Despite living in the Greater Toronto Area, Boyes was an Ottawa Senators fan growing up.[2] However, the hometown Toronto Maple Leafs were Boyes' "second team", and he would later say that he "always wanted to play for the Leafs".[3]
Boyes was once again assigned to the AHL for the 2004–05 season, this time to the Bruins' affiliate, the Providence Bruins, where he scored 33 goals and 75 points for second on the team and added 8 goals and 15 points in 16 playoff games. He re-signed with Boston in the off-season.[8] Boyes made the Bruins out of training camp for the 2005–06 season and scored his first NHL goal on October 8, 2005, against Sébastien Caron of the Pittsburgh Penguins.[9][14] He scored his first NHL hat trick on March 18, 2006, against Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes.[15] He finished the season with 26 goals and 69 points in 82 games and was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team. Boyes signed a two-year contract extension in the off-season.[16] The following season Boyes struggled, scoring only 13 goals and 34 points in 62 games. On trade deadline day, the Bruins traded Boyes to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Dennis Wideman on February 27, 2007.[17]
After arriving in St. Louis, Boyes would score 4 more goals in 19 games. In St. Louis Boyes became a star player, scoring 43 goals in the 2007–08 season.[18] On March 1, 2008, he signed a four-year contract with St. Louis.[19] He followed this up with 33 goals in the 2008–09 season.[18] The following two seasons were a disappointment, with just 14 goals and 12 goals during that time. On February 27, 2011, Boyes was traded by the Blues to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.[20] Boyes scored a goal in his Sabres debut on March 2, 2011.[21] He scored again in the following game.[22] In his second season with Buffalo Boyes registered 8 goals and 23 points.[23] During his final season with the Sabres, Boyes became the 20th player in NHL history to play in 500 consecutive games.[24] By the end of his tenure with the Sabres, he was a healthy scratch from the lineup and alternated between centre and winger, failing to get comfortable when in the lineup.[25]
On July 1, 2012, Boyes signed as a free agent to a one-year, $1 million deal with the New York Islanders.[26] With the ambition to move on from a disappointing tenure with the Sabres, Boyes rediscovered his scoring touch during the shortened 2012–13 season to score 35 points in 48 games on the Islanders top scoring line alongside John Tavares and Matt Moulson.[27]
Unsigned in the offseason, Boyes was offered a professional try-out contract by the Islanders and the Florida Panthers. He chose to attend the Panthers training camp[28] and signed a one-year deal with them on September 28, 2013.[29] After recording 36 points in 78 games, Boyes was resigned by the Panthers to a two-year, $5.25 million contract.[30]
The last year of Boyes' contract was bought out on June 30, 2015, effectively making Boyes a free agent. Despite picking up 38 points in 78 games and having good advanced analytics, Boyes was unable to find a deal, and on September 10, 2015, he signed a professional tryout contract to attend training camp with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team who originally drafted him in 2000.[3] Boyes impressed at camp and during the pre-season, and on September 27, 2015, he was rewarded with a 1-year, $700,000 contract from the Leafs.[31] On November 2, 2015, Boyes scored his first goal with the club. In the process, Boyes set a franchise record for the longest span between getting drafted and scoring his first goal with the Maple Leafs, notching it 5,609 days after being drafted.[32] Boyes would finish the season with 24 points in 60 games. Boyes once again became an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.[33]
