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| IN THE PROS
Special Events
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MAPLE LEAFS RE-SIGN BOYCE
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TORONTO, ON, July 26, 2009 - Brian Burke, president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, has announced that the hockey club has re-signed Group II restricted free agent forward Darryl Boyce to a two-year contract.
Boyce, a 25-year-old native of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, registered 30 points on 12 goals and 18 assists in 73 games played for the Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies this past season.
The 6 foot, 200-pound forward ranked first on the team in shorthanded goals (2) and second in penalty minutes (131). In the Calder Cup playoffs he scored two goals and had a team-high 27 penalty minutes.
He played one career game for the Leafs on January 24, 2008 at Washington during which he suffered a season ending shoulder dislocation. Boyce joined the Leafs’ organization as a free agent on January 1, 2008 after a strong opening start to his professional career with the Marlies. He was voted the Marlies rookie of the year in 2007-08 despite his call –up to the Leafs and missing the last half of the season. This year he was voted as the Marlies “AHL Man of the Year” nominee for his leadership and community efforts.
Boyce was a four-year veteran of the OHL’s St. Michaels Majors who attended NHL camps in Columbus and Carolina. In 2005, he turned down pro opportunities so he could join the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds – a move that would turn out to be very beneficial to his overall development and his career growth.
In his first year at UNB, Boyce had 15-17-32 in 28 regular season games finishing 9th overall in AUS scoring and Top 5 in goals scored. In the AUS playoffs, Boyce tied for the goal scoring lead and finished third overall in scoring. His strong season performance earned him a CIS Athlete of the week award and he was named the AUS Rookie of the year. He was also selected to the Canadian University Rookie All-Star team.
In the summer of 2006, he was offered an AHL deal with Toronto but turned in down to remain at UNB. The move paid off for the feisty hard working forward as he helped lead UNB to a Canadian University Cup Championship and was voted as an All-Star forward at the tournament in Moncton.
He produced 14-19-33 points in 25 regular season games for UNB finishing 11th in the AUS. He finished top five in play-off scoring for the AUS and was 2nd overall in goals scored.
Earlier in the 2006-07 season, Boyce had also helped the Atlantic University All-Star team win a Gold Medal at the World University Championships in Torino, Italy. Boyce played a key role in that victory as he scored the winning goal in Canada’s 3-2 win over Finland in the semi-final game. Canada went on to win the Gold with a 3-1 victory over Russia in the final with Boyce’s UNB team-mate Rob Hennigar notching 2 goals in that game. .
Boyce, who was also an Academic All-Canadian while at UNB, has continued to take courses in pursuit of his Business degree.
- with files from the Toronto Maple Leafs and UNB Varsity Reds
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010