Dan Boyle's impressive NHL career is an interesting tale of where the game has been and gone. He loves the game. He wants it to thrive. He wants fans to enjoy it. And because of that, the defenseman worries for it again today, almost just as much as he did when he entered the league, undrafted, in the late 1990s during the heyday of the clutch and grab.
"When I started, you wanted the big defenseman that could hold up and chip the puck out," Boyle, who announced his retirement last Wednesday, told ESPN.com. "There was no room for the smaller guy because it was too physical of a game.