Boyle wishes ex-Bolts teammates well, if not management

As Dan Boyle walked off the south rink inside the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, as he was about to step into an unfamiliar locker room, the former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman was greeted by a familiar group of fans welcoming Boyle "back home.''

In essence, Boyle has already moved on from his time with Tampa Bay, six seasons that saw the 5-foot-11 defenseman blossom into one of the league's top offensive blue liners and saw him become a main cog in the Lightning's 2004 Stanley Cup championship team.

His South Tampa home has been up for sale and the lot in which he planned to build a new house on sits vacant, though he intends to hold onto the land in case he and wife decide to move back to the area after Boyle's playing days are over.

"There will always be a place in my heart for Tampa,'' Boyle said as he sat on a bench inside one of the small locker rooms after finishing practice.

Boyle did not leave the franchise on the best of terms. After signing a six-year extension in February of 2008, a deal he felt would see him end his career in a Lightning uniform, Boyle was literally forced to accept a trade five months later when he was threatened by new ownership that if he didn't agree to waive a no-trade clause, he would be placed on waivers. On July 4, 2008, he reluctantly agreed to be moved to San Jose, where he now is one of the team's alternate captains after playing one season with the Sharks.

While he doesn't wish to see the team go through the on-ice struggles it has the past season-plus, particularly the few players still remaining in which he shared a locker room with, he won't exactly be sending Christmas cards to anybody involved with the current Lightning ownership.

"Knowing some of the guys I know, I don't wish them anything bad," Boyle said. "I want them to succeed (but) selfishly, part of me, obviously, still has a problem with the guys up top. I don't want the guys I know to be going through this. That's more important than those two guys up there.''

Boyle's last season with Tampa Bay wasn't the most memorable, having suffered a severed tendon in his wrist during preseason only to pushed back into the lineup too soon and requiring a second surgery to repair the damage. He was limited to 34 games in 2007-08.

"That last year, it's not a year I want to remember. I came back too early, and came back hurt and played hurt,'' he said. "It's not the way I wanted to go out.''