It was pretty obvious to me early on that Boychuk was intimidated by the pace of the game at the NHL level. He never really adjusted and got comfortable. I don't know if it was more of a hockey sense issue or a feeling like he didn't belong, but he didn't have the confidence in his abilities to take the risks he was taking in the AHL that made him dangerous down there. It seemed mostly mental with him. He just didn't seem like the brightest crayon in the box. The step up in physicality wilted him a bit too. Sometimes the NHL is just too much for some players. I don't believe his dedication was 100% on point either. He seemed pretty content with being a big fish in a small pond as far as the AHL goes. That league is supposed to be fairly uncomfortable for ambitious players, but he seemed somewhat content there.
I agree with HFP about Borer. He was already on his way back down when the bus crash happened. His mobility really took a hit with the injuries and he was one of those classic tweeners. Bruno St. Jacques around the same time was another of that ilk. No particular glaring weakness, but no particular glaring strengths. Not big, not physical, not exceptional skaters. Just minutes eaters. Brett Carson was the guy among that group that really had me convinced he could be more. He skated pretty well and was a bigger guy. My memory is cloudy as to his specific weaknesses, but he falls into that group of guys who were middling and only in consideration because of our extreme lack of depth and the fact that our defensemen were all 38 years old.
I remember at the trade deadline in '02 when Rutherford boldly proclaimed that Jarsoslav Svoboda was our deadline acquisition in a terse press conference following another deadline day of complete inactivity. In retrospect, it was insane for us to believe he had any significant future considering how pedestrian his production was in the AHL. He just caught lightning in a bottle that year and picked up the right linemates to not look totally useless. That particular sequence really underscored the cheapness of those teams.