Johnny Boychuk: In-Season Extension ‘Not Out of the Question’

Boy oh boy would I love to see some “Johnny Rocket’s” on Long Island for years to come, wouldn’t you? It seems as if this may be a real possibility for the Islanders and Johnny Boychuk, something which would be huge for a team that hasn’t won a playoff series in over 20 years. Boychuk has just one year remaining on his contract and the 30 year old Islanders top defenseman shed some light on his contract situation while talking to D.J. Bean, reporter for WEEI in Boston after the Islanders practice today.

"When asked about possibly giving up the chance to explore the free agent market and signing a  long term deal with New York mid-season, Boychuk replied with “Definitely.” “Our team is going to be unbelievable for quite some time – probably the next five years is going to be an awesome time for this team. It’s not out of the question,” Boychuk added."

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The former Stanley Cup Champion has absolutely revolutionized the Islanders powerplay this season with his absolute blast of a slapshot, something the Islanders haven’t seen from a defenseman dating back to Adrian Aucoin and Roman Hamrilik over a decade ago. Coupled with his fantastic offensive zone play, Boychuk has also been very solid for the Islanders in his own zone, utilizing his 6″2 frame to out-muscle forwards down in the “dirty areas.” The 30 year old defenseman has tallied 6 points in six games, with three of them coming on the powerplay. To me, the most impressive thing about Boychuk is his ability to hit the net with mostly all of his slapshots and to find a way to get pucks through traffic. Also, if you don’t think that his fantastic puck distribution has directly led to players such as Brock Nelson’s hot starts, you’re surely mistaken. He knows how to set up guys in good scoring positions on the powerplay, and in Nelson’s case, how to bank pucks off of bodies and into the net.

It would be prudent of Garth Snow to strike while the iron is hot and land Boychuk long term while he is still in the “honey moon” phase of his stay here on Long Island because, you know, November is approaching(I’m only half joking). The three year contract Boychuk had signed with Boston carries a cap hit of a little under three and a half million per, and he is almost surely going to command double that this time around, which he deserves. I would also have to believe Boychuk will be looking somewhere in the five year range as well, which would mean it’s most likely his last big NHL contract so he’ll be looking to max out the dollar value.

The bottom line is that Garth Snow struck gold in landing Johnny Boychuk, now it is time for us to see how long we have before the well runs out. It is very tough to determine whether or not Boychuk will stay at this point and after the Thomas Vanek debacle last season, I won’t say either way but through six games, it appears that there’s a chance we may see some “Johnny Rocket’s” on Long Island for years to come.

Do you think Johnny Boychuk will resign? If so, for what terms? Feel free to leave your thoughts below!