UFA RW Brad Boyes

Brad Boyes is the definition of a utility player playing the balance of the season on both wings with a variety of players. At 34 years of age and coming off of a 1 year 700 000 dollar contract, he will likely go for a very reasonable price if he chooses to continue playing. Via Left Wing Lock we see that Brad Boyes played all over the place on a Leafs team that was mostly the Marlies for the majority of the season.

While being saddled with, shall we say, less than stellar linemates Brad Boyes got a surprising amount of work done over his 60 games this season.

With his limited ice time we can see that Boyes was better than his team, nearly everywhere. He drove possession, scoring chances, and more importantly, high danger chances while chipping in a solid 15 even strength points. The question here is asked and answered, how can he help the Flames?

He is a solid contributor on the 3rd or 4th lines while being deployed in less favourable circumstances than a lot of his team mates. He gets the puck moving in the right direction and creates scoring chances. So one last thing to consider before making a decision, did he just have a good year? Can we expect this kind of thing moving forward?

Well, 832 games into his career we see that he has always performed this well. His minutes per game have clearly dropped, likely due to age, but he has been an effective player for the entirety of his career in all of the areas that the Flames struggled this past season. He drives possession, he creates scoring chances, and he doesn't necessarily have to be all that sheltered to do it. Combine this with a cap friendly contract and what we're looking at is a value signing.

Next up P.A. Parenteau

All numbers courtesy of War On Ice and General Fanager

by Matthew Granlund