What will recently claimed Travis Boyd bring to the Vancouver Canucks?

Well, looks like it’s “claim every Leaf off waivers” season for the Vancouver Canucks. After snagging Jimmy Vesey last week, the team has now claimed Travis Boyd too, and they’ll both be a significant upgrade for the Canucks’ bottom six.

I wrote about Vesey when his news broke a few days ago, and Boyd will likely make a similar impact, as he has garnered eight points in 20 games with Toronto this season. More importantly, Boyd did that without spending much time on the power play; he’s currently scoring 2.4 points per 60 minutes at even strength, which ranks fourth on the Leafs for players who have played over 100 minutes at five on five.

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In fact, that mark would be good enough for second on Vancouver in the same situation, only behind Elias Pettersson. Obviously, we shouldn’t expect this type of production to continue because of its small sample size, as Boyd has played less than 175 minutes this year at five on five.

With that said, Boyd is a legitimate third line forward much like Vesey and is capable of playing up and down the lineup too. Over the past two seasons, he has scored 18 points in 44 games, which is good for 34 points over a regular 82 game season. Impressively, he accomplished this while averaging only 10:48 minutes of ice time per game since he played on contenders like the Capitals and Leafs.

On a shallow team like the Canucks, he should get more opportunities and be able to score at an even higher clip, maybe even close to half a point per game. More importantly, Boyd can do this while playing adequate defence, unlike a pure offensive specialist like Adam Gaudette. This means that he won’t need to be sheltered, which provides Travis Green with more lineup flexibility.

Positional versatility is another asset that Boyd will provide Vancouver since he has experience playing both centre and wing. With the Canucks’ centre depth severely depleted at the moment, don’t be surprised if he gets slotted up the middle. However, Boyd’s much more comfortable on the wing, which is evident since he’s won less than 40% of the faceoffs in his career and sits at an abysmal 24% this season.

With Boyd and Vesey in the fold, Vancouver now has the makings of an adequate third line, which is something that the team has lacked for years. Neither player is a world-beater by any means, but they do represent a significant upgrade to previous iterations of the Canucks’ bottom six.

But what do you think, Canucks fans? Do you like the addition of Travis Boyd? Let us know in the comments below!