Playing Career
Boychuk was drafted 61st overall in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche. Prior to being drafted Boychuk was a product of the WHL Calgary Hitmen. Boychuk made his professional debut with the Hershey Bears in the 2004–05 season.
Boychuk spent the next four years in the Avalanche organization playing primarily for their AHL affiliations. Boychuk made his NHL debut in the 2007–08 season on the January 5, 2008 against the New York Islanders. Boychuk, a defenceman, made his debut as a forward playing on the wing.
On June 24, 2008, Boychuk was traded to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Matt Hendricks. Boychuk was assigned to the Providence Bruins to start the 2008–09 season and in his first week was named "AHL Player of the Week". On December 1, 2008, Boychuk was recalled to Boston and made his Bruins debut in a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 4, 2008. Boychuk was then returned to Providence for the rest of the season where he enjoyed a breakout season, capturing the Eddie Shore Award by leading the league with 20 goals and 45 assists among defenceman and being named in the AHL's First All-Star Team.
On July 1, 2009, Boychuk secured his first one-way contract when he re-signed with the Bruins for the 2009–10 season. After initially making the Bruins opening night roster, Boychuk was primarily a Healthy Scratch in the first months of the season. After returning from a conditioning assignment in Providence, he established himself within the Bruins as a two-way defenseman to finish with 15 points in 51 games to earn a two-year contract extension on June 24, 2010.
As a member of the Bruins when they defeated the Vancouver Canucks to win the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, he was involved in a controversial play that resulted in Mason Raymond sustaining a vertebrae compression fracture twenty seconds into Game 6 on June 13. Raymond had been shoved backwards into the boards by Boychuk with his stick caught between Raymond's legs. The injury forced Raymond to miss the remainder of the series and the start of the following season. Boychuk was neither penalized on the play nor punished with a fine or suspension. Critical of the lack of any action taken against Boychuk, Canucks president Mike Gillis said, "I didn't see the puck around him. I thought the Boston player used a can opener and drove him with enough force into the board to break his back." Mike Murphy, the NHL's senior vice president of hockey operations, defended the league's decision by explaining, "We felt it was a battle for the puck. Boychuk tried to eliminate Raymond by pushing him towards the boards as the puck went by."
In the following 2011–12 season, he was rewarded with a three-year contract extension to remain a fixture on the Championship winning Bruins Blueline on February 14, 2012. Despite an inability to defend the Stanley Cup, Boychuk produced 15 points in 77 games.
During the 2012 NHL lockout, Boychuk ventured to Europe and signed a temporary contract in Austria with EC Red Bull Salzburg of the EBEL on November 16, 2012. He scored 2 goals and posted 8 points in 15 games before he returned to the Bruins for the shortened 2012–13 season.
Boychuk resides in Wakefield, Massachusetts during the season.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Boychuk
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