OPINION

By Eric McErlain

updated 9:12 p.m. ET July 10, 2008

In the first few hours of the NHL free-agent signing period, it would have been easy to conclude that the Tampa Bay Lightning were the big winners this year. With the period only a few hours old, the Lightning signed wingers Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts away from the defending Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins, later lured winger Radim Vrbata away from Phoenix and added goalie Olaf Kolzig from Washington.

Toss in another ex-Penguin, Adam Hall, and Tampa Bay all of a sudden had added $10.25 million in salary to the payroll, this on a team that was more than happy to part with Brad Richards at the trade deadline and say goodbye to the $23.4 million he's due over the course of the next three seasons.

That meant somebody had to go, and despite management's initial public claims to the contrary, the man Tampa Bay was shopping was defenseman Dan Boyle. San Jose general manager Doug Wilson, needing to bolster his power play after losing free-agent defenseman Brian Campbell to Chicago, was ready to play, and happy to ship young defender Matt Carle, prospect Ty Wishart, a first-round pick in 2009 and a fourth-round pick in 2010 to Tampa Bay to make it happen. Coming along to San Jose in the trade along with Boyle was his buddy, defender Brad Lukowich.

So why did Tampa Bay feel the need to get rid of Boyle after the incoming ownership group pressed in the regular season to get him re-signed to a contract that will pay him almost $6.7 million per year over the next five seasons? Outside of the obvious need to clear some cap room in the wake of their massive free-agent spending spree, there's some indication in the numbers that the Lightning could get along just fine without him.

Though Tampa Bay scored 12 fewer power play goals this past season than the season before, most of that can be attributed to the fact that the team also had 78 fewer opportunities with the extra man. The power play, in fact, was deadlier when it had the chance, converting 19.3 percent of the time (fifth-best in the league), as opposed to 18.4 percent the season before.
Better still for the Lightning, they managed that sort of improvement with Boyle sidelined for 45 games. Toss in the acquisitions of Malone and Vrbata along with the return of winger Vaclav Prospal, and the Lightning are so loaded up front that it might not matter who's throwing the puck through the screens from the point.

As for clearing the shooting lanes in front of presumptive starting goalie Mike Smith or Kolzig, that's another question entirely. Get ready for plenty of 6-5 games in Tampa next season.

So what's San Jose getting in Boyle? Since the lockout and thanks to the unbalanced schedule, I got to see a lot of Boyle in Washington over the past three seasons. And outside of Scott Niedermayer or Nicklas Lidstrom, there's probably no one single defenseman in all of hockey who could solve a team's power-play problems faster than Boyle -- never mind the fact that he can also rack up better than 27 minutes of ice time per game.

Unlike most power play units that station a pair of defensemen at the points, Boyle ran Tampa Bay's first unit by himself. Stationed at the enemy blue line one stride from the top of the slot, Boyle served as the unit's lone pivot, distributing the puck to each wing in a manner that made him look as much like an NBA point guard as an NHL defenseman.

Sure, there are plenty of other defensemen who could have racked up eye-popping numbers playing alongside Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, but make no mistake, Boyle was an integral part of that unit, and every bit as much a contributor as either of his more celebrated teammates. Now, in San Jose, Boyle gets to work with a corps of forwards arguably as talented and deep as the group he left in Tampa Bay, and he'll get to share the load on the power play with a future Hall of Famer in Rob Blake, who signed a one-year deal with the Sharks just before the July 4 holiday in the States.

Tampa Bay's spending spree sprung the one player who could fill a gaping hole in San Jose. In the short term, the Sharks will come out on top.

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