Boyle wants to 'make most of' contract with Penguins

TAMPA, Fla. -- Brian Boyle spent last season without a team, skating and training on his own in hopes that he would earn an opportunity to play in the NHL once again. 

All of his hard work over the last year paid off.

The Penguins signed Boyle, 36, to a one-year contract for the 2021-22 season worth the league-minimum $750,000, Ron Hextall announced Tuesday morning prior to the Penguins' season-opener against the Lightning.

"We really liked his game," Mike Sullivan said Tuesday of Boyle. "We think he can help us in some of the areas where we're trying to improve and get better. Brian's a real good pro, he's really established himself as a real solid NHL player, he's had a great career to this point. We think he's a guy that's going to bring us leadership off the ice, we think he's going to help us on the penalty kill and in the faceoff circle on the ice. So there are a number of areas where we think he can really help us. I thought he had a strong showing during training camp. We're excited to have him, we think he's going to make us a better hockey team."

Reflecting Tuesday on the work he put in over the last year, Boyle said, "I still had a passion for it. I still wanted to get back in and play. This has been challenging, but it's really a rewarding life to be able to play in this league so I'm excited to get back in."

Boyle was asked if there was anybody particularly encouraging, like a former teammate, during the process in the last year.

"I say my wife and my family. Maybe she just wanted me to get out of the house a little bit," Boyle quipped. 

He named his strength and conditioning coach in Foxborough Brian McDonough as someone who has been particularly instrumental in getting Boyle to this point, as well as some of the players that train there like Noah Hanifin and Kevin Hayes in keeping him motivated throughout the process. 

"We skate in the summer and they're really encouraging too, they were positive," he said. "I'd ask them, 'Am I just past time?' and they reassured me. It's a lot of time off, and it's a lot of time with just your own thoughts and wondering."

Earlier in camp, Sullivan spoke about the need for players to step up and seize the opportunities presented by the absences of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to start the season. On Tuesday, the first player he named when speaking about players who did step up was Boyle.

"He lived up to certainly my expectations and what we thought he would bring," Sullivan said.

After a year away from the NHL, Boyle is hoping to continue to keep living up to those expectations and take advantage of this opportunity.

"At the end of day, I wasn't ready to quit, so I didn't," Boyle said. "I got fortunate that Hexy and Sully gave me a chance to come to camp. I'm really appreciative of that. I want to make the most of that."

MORE FROM THE SKATE

• The Penguins put Evgeni Malkin on long-term injured reserve, providing the temporary cap relief and roster space needed for the Boyle signing.

• Crosby's status was changed to "injured non-roster," a designation that opens up an additional roster spot, but provides no cap relief. It essentially functions as injured reserve without a time minimum. The "injured non-roster" designation is a special designation only available to players who fail a physical in training camp.

- Zach Aston-Reese, who was medically cleared to rejoin the team but is still physically not ready to play after his symptomatic bout of COVID-19, was added to the NHL's COVID protocol list. It's just a procedural move because he's still not able to play, not because he contracted COVID again. He was still around the team on Tuesday. As to why it was Aston-Reese added to the list and not Jake Guentzel, Sullivan said part of the reason was that Guentzel was not ever symptomatic.

"I know Hextall is dealing with roster compliance and all of that," Sullivan said. "I don't claim to understand all of the details of all of the nuances of those rules."

• Crosby, Guentzel and Aston-Reese joined the morning skate late in the session.

• Mike Matheson left the skate midway through and didn't return. Sullivan said that Matheson is day-to-day with a lower-body issue and won't play tonight. 

• The Penguins used these lines and pairings in the line rushes, which took place before Matheson left:

Danton Heinen - Jeff Carter - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Dominik Simon
Drew O'Connor - Brian Boyle - Sam Lafferty
(Anthony Angello)

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Mike Matheson - John Marino
Marcus Pettersson - Chad Ruhwedel
(Mark Friedman)

• Friedman has experience playing on the left side, so he's presumably the right-handed defenseman who will shift to the left in Matheson's absence tonight.

• The first power play was Letang, Bryan Rust, Jason Zucker, Kasperi Kapanen, Jeff Carter

• The second power play sans Matheson was John Marino, Marcus Pettersson, Danton Heinen, Evan Rodrigues, Dominik Simon

• The Lightning used these lines and pairings:

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Steven Stamkos
Mathieu Joseph - Ross Colton - Corey Perry
Pat Maroon - P-E Bellemare - Taylor Raddysh

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Zach Bogosian

• The Lightning will raise their banner before tonight's game. Remembering the Penguins' own banner-raising ceremonies, Sullivan said that it can be difficult for a team to have that ceremony and then have to immediately play a hockey game.

"You get caught up in the emotions," Sullivan said. "I remember when we went through it, the emotions that went through my body as the coach, and I didn't go on the ice and have to play when it was all said and done. I know the conversations we had in our dressing room on the two nights that we raised our banners since I've been coach, and a lot of the discussion revolved around enjoying the moment but being ready to move by it and stay focused and make sure that we're focused on the task at hand."

He's hoping that watching the Lightning raise that banner will prove to be inspirational for the Penguins players.

"One of the things I hope that playing tonight and being part of another team's banner-raising is that it's going to motivate and inspire us to want to do it again. It's certainly going to bring back emotions from my standpoint, and how good that feeling is when we were able to do it."

• Usually when a guy stays on the ice well after the skate ends, it's because he's not playing. Mathieu Joseph, who is playing tonight for Tampa, stayed out on the ice well after the other Lightning skaters were gone, working with one of the Lightning coaches until the Zamboni made them leave. When P.O Joseph was up in the NHL last season, he'd often stay out on the ice so late after practices that the Zamboni would eventually chase him off or a trainer would tell him that he needed to get off. The work ethic must just run in the family.

• Stanley Cup champion Ron Hainsey was in the stands for the skate. In the moment I assumed that he must work for the Lightning in some capacity. I looked it up afterward, and he isn't working for any team. Guess he was just hanging out?

• If Carter gets a goal tonight, he should earn some kind of sponsorship from Welch's after bringing a family-sized bag of fruit snacks on the plane ride here: