Boychuk is set to become a restricted free agent, which gives the Hurricanes the first opportunity to sign him to another contract. The sixth-year pro spent a career high 31 games with Carolina this season, but struggled to be a consistent force in the lineup, getting reassigned to Charlotte in January.
Although the timing of his assignment made it tough to gauge where he stands with Carolina, he did take with him an encouraging message.
“Getting sent down midseason, the future doesn’t get talked about too much,” said Boychuk. “It was more about getting down there and getting back to my game. Coach Peters did mention that if there were injuries that they’d definitely like to see me back again.”
Another option for the 25-year-old is making the jump overseas. Several of his former teammates, including Mark Flood and Mike Murphy, have made the transition to play pro hockey in Europe, and Boychuk is already garnering interest from teams awaiting his decision.
“There’s always different options, whether it’s Europe and the KHL and things like that,” said Boychuk. “My agent’s already mentioned that teams are calling and they kind of want an answer sooner rather than later. It’s definitely something I have to consider.”
Boychuk’s impressive numbers at the AHL level have given him several options to contemplate, but he has made his main goal of sticking in the NHL next season very clear.
“You want a one-way deal,” said Boychuk. “You know with the two-way deals that there’s the possibility that you’re going to be back in the minor leagues. After the year I had last year and signing the contract that I did, they said I shouldn’t really worry about it being a two-way, that I should feel like it’s going to be a full year in the NHL, and it didn’t happen. So sometimes you have to take it with a grain of salt and realize that there’s a lot of good players in Carolina and you never know what can happen. You have to factor in those decisions and see if that’s what you want to do.”
Boychuk has proven that he is an elite player at the AHL level. With a Willie Marshall Award for leading the AHL in scoring already under his belt, he added another milestone this season, becoming the franchise’s all-time goals leader with 114 tallies. For the Alberta native, the next step is to become a consistent force at the next level.
“I’ve been a serviceable guy over the last few years [in the NHL] and a guy that can fill in throughout the lineup and play if a guy’s hurt,” said Boychuk. “But in the end, I want to be one of those guys playing every night.”
“I was able to contribute really well when I was on the third line and got to play on a line with [Victor] Rask and [Chris] Terry,” said Boychuk. “It was pretty cool being known as the ‘Checkers line’ and we had a lot of success early.”
But as the season progressed and lineup regulars began to return, Boychuk started to find himself as the odd-man out.
“Once guys got healthy, guys got moved around, in and out of the lineup,” said Boychuk. “It was tough for me to get my legs going and playing on the fourth line was something I’m not used to, so it took a little bit of time. Once I got on the fourth line, I felt like I was maybe thinking a little too much and not using my athletic ability where I can just go out there and hit and skate and help the team in other ways.”
In total, Boychuk appeared in 31 games for the Hurricanes but was only able to record one point in his final 19 games. In early January, Carolina put the forward on waivers and once he cleared, he returned to Charlotte.
“It’s always tough getting sent down and joining a team halfway through their season,” said Boychuk. “It was tough coming down, but the guys down here were great and welcomed me.”
Once back with the Checkers, the shift from being in and out of the lineup to being one of his team’s biggest weapons was one that took some transitioning. But once he got back into the swing of things, Boychuk was able to pick up right where he left off.
“Obviously not playing a lot up there, I needed to get back into game shape,” said Boychuk. “Down here I get to play power play and usually the first or second line, so I get to play a lot of minutes. I think the first 10 games or so it took a while, but then I got into a bit of a groove and by the end of it I was skating hard and playing the way that I can.”
Boychuk finished the year with 24 points in 39 games, the lowest totals in his six full AHL seasons. He will spend this summer honing his skills while also working his way back from a knee injury that sidelined him for the final three games of the season. According to Boychuk, those were the first games he’s missed due to injury in his pro career.
“I’m doing alright,” said Boychuk of his lower-body injury. “Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It doesn’t require surgery, so that’s good. I’m just going to be spending the next little while doing rehab and hopefully I’ll be able to get to my summer training right away.”
