Brian Boyle is a good short-term fit for the New York Rangers

Pros to signing Brian Boyle

We’ll start by saying that we personally believe there are far more positives than negatives when it comes to handing Brian Boyle a deal, and we’ll map them out here.

Firstly, the center would bring a wealth of experience to Madison Square Garden and that is an invaluable commodity that you can’t have enough of in the modern day NHL.

It takes on even more importance when you consider that the New York Rangers will more than likely be even younger in 2019-20, once again carrying the mantle of having one of the most youthful rosters in the NHL.

With high-end talent such as Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov, Adam Fox, Libor Hajek, Brett Howden, Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil all set to play starring roles in 2019-20, having someone of the ilk of Boyle in and around the locker room will be crucial and extremely beneficial for this collection of young stars who are looking to make their mark on the NHL.

Also, and much like Artemi Panarin, having a player of Boyle’s vast knowledge in the building will help to take some of the pressure off the Rangers’ young studs.

He has been there, seen it and pretty much done it all during his distinguished career in the majors, which has taken in six teams, 766 regular season games, 216 points (124 goals, 92 assists) and 30 points in 114 postseason contests.

If the going gets tough and, let’s face it, there will be more growing pains next year even with Panarin on the roster, who better than Boyle to be able to step in and help guide some of these rookies and prospects through the peaks and valleys of a gruelling NHL regular season.

Boyle is also a high-end character player. He’s shown it time and time again throughout his career, but perhaps the most defining moment of his time in the NHL came in 2017-18.

Diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in September 2017, Boyle showed tremendous courage to play on throughout that year before announcing in October, 2018 that he was in remission.

If that wasn’t enough, the forward tallied the first hat trick of his career on Hockey Fights Cancer Night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Boyle is a battler and he’s exactly the kind of player and man you would want in the trenches with you. He would act as a shining example to those fresh faced youngsters in the locker room, and who better to learn from when it comes to handling yourself on and off the ice.

Let’s not forget about Boyle’s prowess on the ice too. He may be in the twilight of his career but he still has a lot to offer and would slot in as a valuable fourth-line center.

He’s an expert in the faceoff circle with a career winning percentage of 50.2%, including winning 50.2 percent and 52.3 percent of his draws with the New Jersey Devils and Nashville Predators respectively in 2018-19.

He blocked 50 shots, dished out 145 hits and had 22 takeaways in total last year, proving that he’s still a powerful two-way forward who can play a 200 lb game and excel in both the offensive and defensive zones.

Boyle is tough as they come too. Standing at 6’6″ and 245 lb, he can hit like a train, dominate on the forecheck and he’s also not afraid of dropping the gloves in order to protect and stick up for his younger team-mates.

It would be remiss to gloss over the offensive production, however. Boyle, taking into account his stints with both the Devils and the Predators in 2018-19, tallied 18 goals and six assists for 24 points.

And, for arguments sake, just imagine the boost in production Boyle could enjoy if he ended up manning a fourth-line alongside Jesper Fast and Brendan Lemieux.

There is certainly plenty of upside to bringing Boyle back to New York on a team-friendly deal with the intention of the 34-year-old acting as a mentor and a leader for this young Rangers team who are on the cusp of being a contender in the NHL once more.