Confirmed Signing with Link: [ARI] Travis Boyd signs with the Coyotes (1 year, $750k)

[MMC]

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[banks]

One year deal. He'll be flipped at the TDL, if all goes according to plan.

 

[LokiDog]

Is this part of the rebrand?!

 

[Maurice of Orange]

Welcome to the Arizona Canucks.

 

[Petey O]

He's alright. Wasn't really that noticeable for the Canucks in his brief stint and that's probably a good thing being a 4th liner.

 

[rt]

I have no idea what to make of this player.

Seems like he's light in the ass by NHL standards, and doesn't hit. Doesn't kill penalties or win face-offs. Yet he's only got a 0.33 points per game in the NHL (though, that's with only 10m TOI/GP), despite being a month away from turning 28.

I wouldn't normally bother commenting as I would assume this is an AHL signing. But then I read this quote from Bill Armstrong and I'm baffled:

"We are pleased to have Travis join the Coyotes," said Armstrong. "He is a versatile, two-way center who can fill a lot of different roles for our club."

 

[JasonDemersWasOkay]

I’m sure he’s fine, but man as a coyotes fan it’s just really exhausting every year wondering who’s going to score the goals. We never get to have any fun. Hopefully that changes next draft

 

[Nick Hansen]

Never forgotten, always remembered.

 

[LeafsandSharksfan]

Pretty much the definitive solid 4th line guy, responsible, won't cough the puck up but not too physical and very little offense.

 

[Avsboy]

But why?

 

[rt]

But why?

So they don’t just leave a spot wide open for Hayton and Jenik. So one of them as to at least take SOMEONE’S job.

 

[Jakey53]

I have no idea what to make of this player.

Seems like he's light in the ass by NHL standards, and doesn't hit. Doesn't kill penalties or win face-offs. Yet he's only got a 0.33 points per game in the NHL (though, that's with only 10m TOI/GP), despite being a month away from turning 28.

I wouldn't normally bother commenting as I would assume this is an AHL signing. But then I read this quote from Bill Armstrong and I'm baffled:

"We are pleased to have Travis join the Coyotes," said Armstrong. "He is a versatile, two-way center who can fill a lot of different roles for our club."

Let me introduce to you our new #1 center for year 2021-2024.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

 

[Drake1588]

Boyd was a nice player for the Caps. He'll do what a fourth liner should do, and dependably so. Arizona has signed him for one year and $750K, which means there's nothing wrong with a rook displacing him into the 13th forward role. That's fine for depth value.

He's not going to score the goals, but he's not making any more money than anyone else among your 21-odd players is making. If your team is hurting and you start looking at Boyd as part of the problem, you're probably looking in the wrong place. With other players doing their jobs higher up the food chain, he's a fine energy-line player and good for about 45-50 regular season games. He's not going to look to his left and to his right on a struggling club and do someone else's job, though. Boyd is a fourth-line center. This is what he's capable of, and nothing more. For the money, that should be alright.

 

[rt]

Boyd was a nice player for the Caps. He'll do what a fourth liner should do, and dependably so. Arizona has signed him for one year and $750K, which means there's nothing wrong with a rook displacing him into the 13th forward role. That's fine for depth value.

He's not going to score the goals, but he's not making any more money than anyone else among your 21-odd players is making. If your team is hurting and you start looking at Boyd as part of the problem, you're probably looking in the wrong place. With other players doing their jobs higher up the food chain, he's a fine energy-line player and good for about 45-50 regular season games. He's not going to look to his left and to his right on a struggling club and do someone else's job, though. Boyd is a fourth-line center. This is what he's capable of, and nothing more. For the money, that should be alright.

Can you expand on this? Normally I would look for 4th liners that can either hit and fight and/or kill penalties. It looks like he doesn't do any of that. He's a career 41% on FOs, too. So no defensive zone, right-handed center, FO specialist or anything. He isn't listed as particularly tall and he's pretty light. So I imagine there isn't much power in his game, for cycling the puck. Heck, it looks like his Off. Zone Start % is 68.13 - which seems odd for someone like this?

What would you say he does well from the 4th line?

 

[DatDude44]

Can you expand on this? Normally I would look for 4th liners that can either hit and fight and/or kill penalties. It looks like he doesn't do any of that. What would you say he does well from the 4th line?

He can possess the puck and not bury opportunities

 

[JAK]

Brad Richardson was a fourth line plug on the Canucks, then he became the Coyotes' leading scorer.

Travis Boyd is going to anchor the first line.

 

[Snarky Coyote]

I don't understand, where is the 2nd round pick coming from?

 

[Paulinbc]

You guys are really gonna like this cat.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

He can possess the puck and not bury opportunities

well said... the days of having 3 knuckledraggers on your 4th line are over

 

[Siludin]

He's okay
I think every team is trying to replicate the magic of Carter Verhaeghe by signing young-ish AHL stars in hopes they can randomly become great.

 

[Pinto]

Honestly thought he looked really good on the leafs 4th line last year. Better offensively than I thought he’d be too.

 

[Drake1588]

Can you expand on this? Normally I would look for 4th liners that can either hit and fight and/or kill penalties. It looks like he doesn't do any of that. He's a career 41% on FOs, too. So no defensive zone, right-handed center, FO specialist or anything. He isn't listed as particularly tall and he's pretty light. So I imagine there isn't much power in his game, for cycling the puck. Heck, it looks like his Off. Zone Start % is 68.13 - which seems odd for someone like this?

What would you say he does well from the 4th line?

Well? He does nothing well. He's average at a bunch of things, though. He's not a tremendous liability out there. He's there to go out for short spurts for 7-8 minutes a game, and solely to spell the top liners when they need a breather. For a guy who fights well, or takes faceoffs especially well, or is a consummate penalty killer, it's going to cost $1.5M to upwards of $2.5M AAV for particularly lopsided and regrettable UFA deals. Boyd's a veteran who makes as little as you can make in this league.

What he does do: He can step in for good players when they are injured/suspended. For a game or two, he doesn't seem woefully out of place. He killed penalties some, but I wouldn't say he's tremendous at it. Not a huge liability there either. Just OK. And for the NHL minimum, that's alright. He ought to spend half a year in the press box.

The world needs ditch diggers too.

 

[ThatsSoSlavin]

I liked him in TO but he’s the kind of player that needs to be surrounded, doesn’t do much of anything by himself

 

[VivaLasVegas]

IMHO, the problem with Arizona is that you have an owner who doesn't understand hockey -- and doesn't even like hockey -- but is trying to leverage his ownership of the Coyotes into being able to buy what he really wants, being an NBA team (look it up, he unsuccessfully tried to acquire the Atlanta Hawks some years ago). So long as you have an owner like that, the odds of anything good happening are really small. Your best scenario would be if he gets his NBA team and then sells the Coyotes to somebody who actually likes hockey and is determined to build a championship team.