The San Jose Sharks made a point to re-sign veteran forwards Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau during the 2013-14 season, yet they left things hanging with defenseman Dan Boyle. The scoring blueliner told the Mercury News that he’d like to remain with San Jose, but he made one thing even clearer: he believes that he has plenty left in the tank.
“It’s too easy to say ‘he’s old and done,’ ” Boyle said. “That’s just a thing that’s too easy to say. At some point that’ll be true, but I don’t believe for one second that that is true.”
It’s easy to boil it all down to his point totals - 36 in 75 regular season games, four assists in the seven playoff games - and point to his days as a regular 50+ point guy. The 37-year-old made no mistake that he was limited by a concussion for a big chunk of this season and believes that a nice finish (including five points in six April games) makes an argument that he can still flirt with the work from his prime if healthy.
“I play a certain way. I’m a risk-reward type of player and we went through a stretch of games where we were winning and I wasn’t getting any points,” Boyle said. “I was making some very simple plays, but they were effective. The fact that it was too simple, eventually, I received some unfair comments because of that.”
The outspoken defenseman blasted the media for criticizing him, but ultimately, it all comes down to how the Sharks feel about him. If they think the game has passed him by to the point that they won’t offer the deal he wants (Boyle appears eager to get more than a one-year contract), then he may need to convince one of the league’s other 29 teams otherwise.
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