We continue our annual, player-by-player look at the 2010-11 Philadelphia Flyers. In no particular order, we’ll analyze one player per day (or so) over the next few weeks. Up today, late-season waiver claim Nick Boynton.
Nick Boynton
#24 / Defenseman / Philadelphia Flyers
6-1
218
Jan 14, 1979
10/11 Salary: $500,000
11/12 Salary: UFA
11/12 Cap Hit: UFA
Partner: Um, everybody?
Depth Chart Ranking: No. 8 D
It’s Friday night… time to get some of these pointless grades out of the way.
Expectations: We wanted one thing out of Nick Boynton this season. In the wake of the injury to Chris Pronger, Paul Holmgren went out and claimed Boynton off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks to provide some depth on defense. A No. 7 defenseman was all we needed. Did we get that?
Grading criteria: We assign grades on a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the best. We base our grades on expectations, execution on those expectations and a player’s overall potential. A 10 means that the player had a fantastic, expectation-surpassing season. A 1 means that he was horrible and needs to go. Like, yesterday.
It’s tough to say. Boynton only played 10 games in orange and black, so looking at the stats really don’t explain things well enough for us. What we do know, however, is that Danny Syvret took his spot by the end of the regular season and the postseason, pushing Boynton down the depth chart and permanently out of a uniform. Boynton’s last game as a Flyer came on April 1.
What’s that tell me? The coaches didn’t think he was getting the job done. Plain and simple.
The grade: Ultimately, the grade doesn’t matter in the slightest bit. He didn’t hurt the team. He didn’t help the team. He didn’t take salary from any other player (although he did cause quite the unnecessary uproar when he was picked up).
He was inconsequential. For that reason, we’ll smack him right in the middle at a 5.
