Patrick WilliamsTheahl.com features a writer
Travis Boyd He had his name on the scale before the Hershey Bears could even pay tribute to him.
Playing his first game in a major league in more than six years, the Toronto Marlies forward started their opening goal 7:39 into the lead to a 5-2 victory over the Bears on Friday night.
Marlies Head Coach John Gruden he had boyd in the starting lineup, and the bears and their fans paid with video and a standing ovation during halftime of the opener.
After that Boyd made the night even more special. After that first time we helped, he jumped into the hershey hair and hit the gun in the middle Garin bjorklundpads 2-2 tie 2-2 in the second period. From there his cross-food is frozen with a heavy set Reese Johnson the goal of moving forward later in time. His four-point night was completed by hitting the empty-netter with 1:37 to go, and he took the spin as the first star of the game.
It was a colorful journey for Boyd who finally returned to the place where his pro career began in the spring of 2015.
“All night was such a night,” Boyd said afterward. “I didn’t care that they were going to charge in the first half, but it meant a lot to me. I look back on my year here and being able to get a chance to play them.
“Coming back – and the applause at the end of the game, the applause for the video tribute and everything – was just the icing on the cake for what was a great night, too.”
Boyd is one of the Washington Capitals’ many successful development projects to come out of Hershey. A six-round pick in the 2011 draft, he recorded 172 points in 221 games for Hershey before graduating to the NHL. He was a second team Ahl Ahl All-star in the year 2016-17, and will be remembered for a long time by fans of BEAS TO FAIDER 7 Overtime goal against Wilkes-Barre / Skronan in the 2016 playoffs. Boyd made his NHL Debut on December 4, 2017, and had headlines as they won their first Stanley Cup in 2018.
After signing with Toronto in 2020, Boyd’s journey took him to Vancouver, Arizona and Minnesota. He had his best NHL production with the Coyotes, scoring 17 goals in 2021-22 and 2022-23 goals, before an upper body injury. The native of Hopkins, Minn., and the University of Minnesota Golden State attended three games for his hometown team last season, spending most of the year leading the AHL’s Iowa in the field. In all, Boyd has 299 NHL contests on his ledger.
Now he’s back in the Maple Leafs organization, brought on board as a free agent to mentor the organization’s prospects. It’s a very different place in its work than it was ten years ago, but it can still be productive, too. He has seven goals and 11 points in 10 games for the Marlies including Wednesday’s action.
It’s that kind of early production that can help the team weather some of the changes that come with important offsuasion roster changes. When he first started at Hershey, Boyd could look to the same partners Chris Bourque, Camper camper, Garrett Mitchell and others help to ease the conversion. With nine rookies for the marlies this season, toronto is counting on boyd to bring those same lessons to the marlies room. Boyd’s ties to those Hershey leaders remain strong, and Mitchell, now a Hershey broadcaster, hugged him after Friday’s game.
“For me as a young person,” Boyd recalled, “just to come to the rink every day and watch the guys do it for eight years, I was very fortunate to have my old teammates here every year.”
Who knows if – or if – Boyd will have a chance to look after Hershey again. But Friday gave his fans and Hershey’s fans a chance to look back on some very special years together.
“I’ll honestly forget about the night,” Boyd said. “This is one I will definitely remember for a long time.”
In the American Hockey League Beat twenty and twenty, Theahl.com Features Writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and flosports and is a regular contributor to the network. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage in the league in 2016.
