ST. PAUL, Minn. — The 7-year-old Travis Boyd would have been blown away that the 31-year-old Travis Boyd got to stand in skates while wearing a Minnesota Wild practice sweater in front of a Wild backdrop Wednesday morning.
Hours before playing in his second game of the preseason, in Dallas, the born-and-bred Minnesotan reflected on being old enough to actually remember what it was like in the State of Hockey when there was no NHL team and what it was like to attend expansion Wild home games in the year 2000.
“I’ll never forget,” said Boyd, the former Hopkins and four-year University of Minnesota standout. “I can go back to all the days of (Andrew) Brunette scoring that overtime winner in Colorado (in 2003), first games, when the All-Star Game was here (in 2004). I was there for the practice days. I’d always make it down for a few games a year.
“Getting a chance, hopefully, to now play for the Wild is gonna be a childhood dream. I’d be lying to you if I said, if I’m fortunate enough to make the team, running onto the ice that first game and to hear the announcer, ‘Here come your Minnesota Wild’ — I mean, I got the chills going down the back of my neck just saying that out loud.”
This wasn’t hyperbole.
The goosebumps were visible as Boyd uttered that sentence and motioned to his neck.
“It’s awesome, like the saying, ‘Childhood dreams are meant to come true,’” Boyd continued. “To be in this situation, I’m very fortunate, and I’m certainly going to put 110 percent of my effort into making sure that it comes true.”
Hear from Travis Boys ahead of tonight’s game against Dallas: https://t.co/6WnlYtVbAA
— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) September 25, 2024
Boyd, the 2018 Washington Capitals Stanley Cup champ who signed a one-year contract with his home-state team July 1, kept throwing out caveats about if he makes the team because he knows it won’t be easy.
There are multiple reasons for that.
First, the Wild’s roster is as tight as Spandex.
Second, the Wild open the season with two games at home. Since AHL Iowa is so close to Minnesota, the Wild’s limited cap space may mean the team decides to initially keep only the 12 forwards it plans to play in the opener against Columbus.
Third, Boyd, despite his 296 games of NHL experience and the fact that he’s been a full-time NHL regular the past four seasons, had to sign his first two-way contract in seven seasons and thus is grouped in with several other quality depth forwards signed by the Wild this offseason.
That alone creates an uncomfortableness he hasn’t felt in a long time. The past four years, Boyd has been an NHL roster shoo-in. He hasn’t played a minor-league game since the 2019-20 season.
But last Nov. 30, in a game in which Boyd scored for the Arizona Coyotes, Colorado’s Josh Manson finished a check on him into the boards below the glass. The impact tore Boyd’s right pectoral muscle. He underwent season-ending surgery, a four-to-six-month timetable.
It was not ideal timing heading into unrestricted free agency this past summer.
“It’s been a weird one, feelings-wise,” Boyd said of fighting for a job in camp. “My mindset and my goal coming into this year was just to, one, get back to playing hockey. It’s been almost 10 full months prior to Saturday’s game in Winnipeg. So I just wanted to get back and feel like a hockey player again.
“I think it’s gone well here this first week and I’m looking forward to continuing in camp and continuing to grow, and get back to feeling like who I am on the ice and feeling like a hockey player again.”
Boyd impressed coach John Hynes and general manager Bill Guerin in a 5-2 win against the Jets last weekend. He played a big part in Graeme Clarke’s goal and skated well in all situations while playing center.
Wednesday night in Dallas, he skated at right wing on a line with Liam Ohgren and Marco Rossi.
Boyd came close to returning to the lineup for the Coyotes in April, so getting hurt so early last season did at least allow him to have a complete summer of unencumbered training.
But he also knew landing a one-way contract, which would have provided the most security with any team in training camp, was likely out of the cards. So he signed the two-way deal with the Wild with the hopes of showing them and the rest of the NHL that he can still play heading into next summer.
“When July 1 came and I signed the deal that I signed, I obviously also knew that nothing’s guaranteed, so my No. 1 goal is coming into training camp, trying to make the team,” Boyd said. “I put a lot of effort in this summer. Definitely put all my eggs into the basket of this is kind of your last chance to stick around in this league.
“Happy with how it’s gone so far and, again, hoping to continue that through this second half of camp here.”
Boyd, his wife, Kelsey, and his 10-year-old daughter, Hayden, and 5 ½-month-old son, Kylo, live in Edina, although he tapped his heart to note that he still resides in the Hopkins school district. Throughout his pro career, Boyd has had to pack up his life in late August and head to the market he’s set to play in, whether that be Washington, Toronto or Arizona.
This has been the shortest commute of his career so far, and he’s hoping that camp doesn’t end with a drive south on I-35 to Des Moines.
The problem is that he’s not only battling for a spot with prospects like Ohgren and Riley Heidt, but the Wild also have several solid two-way contracted forwards with NHL experience like Reese Johnson, Devin Shore, Brendan Gaunce, Ben Jones, Sammy Walker and Adam Raska.
This was a deliberate decision by management because Guerin has admitted he felt he didn’t do a good enough job last season setting up the Wild with minor-league depth in case of a rash of injuries. So Boyd could also be competing just to embed himself into the staff’s brains when the Wild will inevitably need to recall players from Iowa.
Boyd has opened Hynes’ eyes — although, to be fair, Hynes has praised many of the depth guys through the first week of camp.
“He’s a hockey-smart player,” Hynes said. “He’s picking up the things that we want to do very well. It looks like he’s in good condition. He’s got a competitive nature to him that you need to be successful in the NHL. And he’s got some, along with his hockey sense, I think he’s got some good skill, and he seems to be a fairly versatile player.”
Prior to last year’s injury-ruined season, Boyd averaged 16 goals and 34.5 points over two seasons with the Coyotes.
“I’d like to show them that I can do anything that they need me to do to help the team,” Boyd said. “I think that’s one of my bigger strengths as a player is versatility. I think if you look at my career in this league, I’ve played anywhere from the fourth line to the first line. I’ve killed penalties. I’ve played on the power play. I’ve played in every situation, and I feel like I can play in every situation.”
Doing that for the Wild would be a dream for a player who owns a Stanley Cup ring. He wasn’t a full-time player for the Capitals in 2018, but he did get to play in the Caps’ Game 6 win in the Eastern Conference final to eliminate the Penguins. That snapped Washington’s seven-series drought against its biggest rival.
Unfortunately, Boyd never got his personal day with the Cup because Alex Ovechkin had the Cup for 2 1/2 weeks in Russia. He also never got his name etched on the Cup because he didn’t play the necessary 41 regular-season games or one game in the Stanley Cup Final.
But former teammate T.J. Oshie and then-Caps GM, now-Caps president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan each live in Minnesota and made sure to invite Boyd and his family and friends to their Cup parties.
“If I’m being honest, I’d trade anything to get my name on it,” he said. “(But MacLellan) invited me and said I could invite everybody. And then T.J. Oshie texted me and (teammate) Shane Gersich and said, ‘My day is also your day. Invite whoever you guys want.’ My daughter was born, and we have some great pictures of her sitting in the Cup, so it’s lifelong memories stuff there, for sure.”
Experiences like that motivate Boyd to do everything in his power to remain in the NHL and hopefully land a spot with his beloved Wild.
“This is my 10th training camp, so I’ve been doing it for a while,” he said. “Knowing going into this season that this could easily be my last chance to stay around in this league with how many good players there are and how many young kids come in every year, my goal was to be ready Day 1 of camp.
“I really feel like I’ve put a good foot forward since Day 1 and really happy with how I’ve performed here and still have half of camp to go.”
(Top photo of Brayden Yager and Travis Boyd facing off: Jonathan Kozub / NHLI via Getty Images)
