Cancer survivor Brian Boyle clear to play for Florida Panthers despite COVID-19 pandemic
Of course, Brian Boyle was worried when COVID-19 first surfaced in Florida back in March.
The 35-year-old was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 2017, briefly putting his NHL career in doubt and causing him to spend months off the ice.
Although his cancer went into full molecular remission in 2018, Boyle still naturally wondered whether his battle with leukemia made him more at-risk to the potentially devastating effects of the coronavirus.
About two months ago he called his doctor and got the clearance to take part in the NHL’s return-to-play plan, as long as he felt healthy. He followed up again once the league’s full plans were put into place. Last month, he was one of the first Florida Panthers back on the ice once Phase 2 began and small group workouts were allowed at the Florida Panthers IceDen.
“I looked into it, of course,” Boyle said. “As far as my health and where I”m at, everything’s been great. Everything’s all zeroes with the testing, but I have to make sure, so I called up to Dana-Farber and made sure with my hematologist there, and he was very positive and said, ‘However you’re feeling, the numbers show you’re no more at risk.’”
Few players across the league have opted out of the NHL’s restart and the Panthers expect to have their entire roster with them when they travel to Toronto on July 26 to enter the bubble and participate in the league’s expanded postseason. Boyle, perhaps the player with the largest long-term health concern, will be there.
Boyle was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) during a series of routine preseason blood tests when he was playing with the New Jersey Devils in 2017.
He missed the entire preseason and the first few weeks of the regular season before returning to play the entire year, winning the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for his perseverance. In 2018, he announced his CML was in remission.
Boyle didn’t have just his own health to consider, though. Declan Boyle, the forward’s son, was diagnosed in 2017 with an arteriovenous malformation of the jaw. The rare condition causes blood vessels to form abnormally and arteries to become entangled. He spent years undergoing various surgeries, including at least one since his father joined the Panthers this season.
He is not, however, at greater risk to the virus because of the condition, his father said.
“With my son, it’s a vascular anomaly. It’s a malformation with his jaw,” said Boyle, who plays both center and left wing. “In terms of his overall health and respiratory, and all that, he’s otherwise very, very healthy. We’ve taken all the precautions in the world there.”
“We’ve learned a lot the last few years about what’s really important and hockey is certainly really, really important, but being a dad and being a husband is most important and I want to stick around, and we’ve been given the green light, so that’s really exciting.”
Saarela impresses at training camp
Aleksi Saarela is at a turning point of his young career — at least this is what Joel Quenneville thinks the 23-year-old realizes.
In the last 13 months, the center has been with three different organizations, seldom getting opportunities in the NHL. He was a third-round pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, but spent the entirety of his North American career with the Carolina Hurricanes organization before they traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks last year. After just five games with AHL Rockford last year, the Blackhawks dealt the Finnish forward to the Panthers.
While Saarela spent most of the season with AHL Springfield, he came up to the NHL for good in February and left a lasting impression on Quenneville before the COVID shutdown. In his last game before the hiatus in March, Saarela assisted on both goals to help the Panthers beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1.
“Saarela’s been a guy that when he played he seemed to get better each and every game when he was here,” the coach said. “He certainly left us with something to think about in that last game.”
Now Saarela’s set to take part in the NHL’s restart and Quenneville singled him out as one of the younger, unproven players standing out in the first week of training camp in Coral Springs, putting in extra work on his one-timer after practices with goaltending coach Robb Tallas.
Although Saarela doesn’t currently slot into any of the Panthers’ four forward lines, Quenneville said he will get opportunities at some point in Canada.
“He might not start opening night when we do play. We anticipate him playing for our team at some point,” Quenneville said. “He does give us a great versatile look on a line or on a power-play opportunity if he plays, but he’s been really good, very noticeable and he looks like he wants to find a way to get in that starting lineup. I commend him on his approach over the stretch, but he’s been very noticeable.”
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 3:05 PM.
