In a pretty short period of time, Nick Boynton has gone from NHL all star in '04 to waiver wire cast-off now in '07. He struggled on a bad Coyotes team last year (after struggling on a bad Bruins team the year before that) and was behind the likes of Morris, Ballard, Michalek and Jovonovski in terms of ice-time. His contract, which extends to '09, pays him an average of 2.950MM per year. That's not insignificant, although I believe the 'Yotes would be on the hook for half that amount if he's claimed...
EDIT - (actually the above only applies to players who have been claimed through re-entry waivers. Nevermind).
Is Boynton worth a gamble from a Calgary Flames perspetive? At this point, probably not. Boynton has had injury and contract issues throughout his relatively brief career, a career which already seems to be on the downturn. He was packaged for a very similar player by his original team and then subsequently tossed on the scrap heap after falling behind younger and cheaper guys like Ballard and Michalek. He has a lot of the tools needed to be a top 4 blueliner, but it looks like the wiring upstairs may be a little faulty.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Oilers make a claim for Boynton though: he's a veritable star compared to the motley crew they currently deploy on the back-end.
