Maple Leafs add Brian Boyle in trade with Lightning
The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired forward Brian Boyle from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for minor league forward Byron Froese and a conditional 2017 second-round draft pick.
The 32-year-old Boyle was in the final season of a three-year, $6 million contract and had 13 goals and 22 points in 54 games for the Lightning. The decision by Toronto to pick up Boyle cements the Maple Leafs, a team that finished with the worst record in the NHL last season, as buyers at the trade deadline. Toronto has 69 points, one ahead of the New York Islanders for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
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On the other hand, the Lightning, a team that made the Stanley Cup Final two seasons ago and the Eastern Conference Final last year, are now clearly sellers. On Sunday, Tampa unloaded starting goaltender Ben Bishop to the Los Angeles Kings. Bishop was also a pending unrestricted free agent.
It seemed unlikely the Lightning would have been able to keep Boyle and Bishop in the offseason so trading them now instead of losing them for nothing made sense. The team has 62 points and making the postseason appears to be an uphill climb for Tampa.
Now the Lightning will turn their attention to figuring out how to handle their salary cap. Tampa has $60,085,834 million dedicated to the team’s cap for next season and Tyler Johnson ($3.33 million), Ondrej Palat (3.33 million) and Jonathan Drouin (entry-level contract) are all pending restricted free agents and will likely require raises.
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Boyle’s strong veteran voice should provide an asset to the young Maple Leafs as they make a postseason push. Boyle has played 100 playoff games in his career and made two trips to a Stanley Cup Final. Also, adding Boyle could be the first of several moves by the Maple Leafs. A recent story by Sportsnet pointed out that the team moved some players to long-term injured reserve earlier int he season, which gave Toronto the ability to operate at $15 million above the salary cap.
On the Milbury scale we give this move …
ONE MILBURY: The Lightning were proactive in getting pieces for a veteran they wouldn’t have been able to afford in the offseason. The Maple Leafs added a playoff-tested guy who should add a strong presence in their young locker room. Overall, this was a smart trade for both teams.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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