Travis Boyd
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
For some players, the path to the NHL from draft to roster
fixture is no longer than a trip to the corner store. For others, the roads are many and
uneven. Travis Boyd was a traveler on
the latter. He was taken in the sixth
round of the 2011 draft, 177th overall, right between winger Petr
Placek right in front of him (by Philadelphia) and just before goalie Adam
Wilcox (by Tampa Bay). Wilcox played one
game in the NHL, with the Buffalo Sabres in 2017-2018, while Placek never
played hockey after completing his tour in the Harvard University program in
2014.
Boyd, on the other hand, made slow, steady progress. After being drafted by the Caps, he spent
four years in the University of Minnesota program in the NCAA. After getting a
couple of games late in the 2014-2015 season with Hershey after graduating from
the Minnesota program, he played another two full seasons with the Bears before
he finally got a taste of NHL action.
What a banquet it was, even if the portions were small. He played in eight regular season games and
one postseason game – the series clinching win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in
Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semi-final.
Last season, in just 53 games, Boyd had a quite respectable 20 points,
good for 23rd among all NHL rookies.
His 15 assists tied for 17th in his rookie class. He appeared in one postseason game, going
without a point in ten minutes in a 2-1 loss to Carolina in Game 4 of the
opening round.
It is important to remember that Boyd was a rookie in
2018-2019. Even if he was the 16th-oldest rookie among 207 rookies
to dress for at least one game last season.
Only 31 rookies in that 207-member cohort dressed for more games than
the 53 in which Boyd appeared, and only 27 did so for a single team. That is not a trivial accomplishment for a
team that leans heavily on veteran production in a “win now” mode.
Odd Boyd Fact…
Travis Boyd was a bit of a good luck charm for the Caps, who
were 15-2-1 in the 18 games in which he registered a point.
Bonus Boyd Fact…
The Caps were 18-6-2 when Boyd skated more than ten minutes,
18-7-2 when he skated less than ten minutes.
Fearless’ Take…
For what it’s worth, Travis Boyd is already 15th
in career points (21) among active Minnesota Golden Gopher alumni in the NHL.
Boyd had something of an understated season last year, one in which 20 points
might elicit a reaction, “he had that many?”
Since the 2005-2006 season, he is the ninth Capital to hit 20 points in
his rookie season. The others…
- Alex Ovechkin (106)
- Nicklas Backstom (69)
- Evgeny Kuznetsov (37)
- John Carlson (37)
- Jakub Vrana (27)
- Marcus Johansson (27)
- Andre Burakovsky (22)
- Brooks Laich (21)
All but Burakovsky and Vrana went on to post at least one
50-point season with the Caps (Vrana had 47 last year). That isn’t bad company.
Cheerless’ Take…
Travis Boyd started quite well for someone who got a late
start (his first game was November 5th, Game 13 on the
schedule). He was 3-7-10, plus-5
(averaging 10:24 in ice time per game), in his first 15 games. He faded quite a bit after that, though. He was 1-4-5, plus-1, in his next 14 games
(averaging 10:29) and was 1-4-5, even (averaging 9:05 in ice time), over his
last 24 games. He had only one goal in
his last 31 games. Only twice in his
last dozen games did he get ten minutes of ice time, and one of those was the
season finale, when seedings had been set and the game had no bearing on
standings. His personal possession numbers
did not jump off the page – 11th among forwards in overall shot
attempts-for percentage at 5-on-5 (48.46 percent), nestled between Nic Dowd
(48.65 percent) and Andre Burakovsky (48.33 percent), but this was generally
true of the Caps’ bottom six forwards overall as well.
Potential Milestones:
- 100 NHL games (he needs 39 to reach that mark)
The Big Question… Does Travis Boyd have a spot on this
roster?
Travis Boyd comes with a cheap cost -- $800,000 this season,
his last under his current contract (he is an arbitration-eligible restricted
free agent at the end of the season).
But there seem to be a number of factors combining and conspiring to
deny him a roster spot, at least a settled one.
The Caps acquired forwards Garnet Hathaway and Brendan Leipsic in the
offseason. While both are wingers (Boyd
is a center), and one might be considered a replacement for Devante
Smith-Pelly, there is a bit of a logjam at forward, 14 players under contract
on the parent roster, including Boyd.
Combine that with the salary cap strain under which the Caps
find themselves ($1,364,000 over the cap, according to capfriendly.com), https://www.capfriendly.com/ and the
competition among the bottom six to secure a roster spot will be fierce,
perhaps the story of September training camp.
For his part, Boyd presents a conundrum, a player who put up decent
numbers, by the standard of being a bottom-six rookie in limited play last
year), but he faded at the end, too.
In the end…
Travis Boyd has been something of an under-the-radar player
since he was drafted in 2011. Such is
the life of a low-round draft pick. Then
again, he has come a lot further than his sixth-round cohort from that draft. Only five of 29 other players in that round
have played in more NHL games to date.
The flip side of that coin, though, is that a player in Boyd’s position,
even in his upward development arc, is going to find himself in an insecure
position when it comes to a roster spot.
That he finds himself among a crowded group of bottom-six forward
candidates on a team looking to improve the all-around play of the bottom-six
forwards (something of a problem in the postseason especially) and win now
makes that situation all the more precarious.
Patience on Boyd’s part was rewarded with a significant role
on last year’s Capitals team. Now, with
the competition he faces to keep a roster spot, he will have to add
perseverance to that as well.
Projection: 39 games, 4-11-15, even
Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images North America
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