PITTSBURGH — Brian Boyle skated off the ice, visibly and blissfully drained after his first training camp practice in years.

The pain — the good kind, the kind that comes when trying to hang with the best hockey players in the world — offered the veteran forward a reminder of all that he missed last winter when he sat by the phone waiting for a call that never came.

Boyle believed his body was sharp heading into the abbreviated 2020-21 season. His mind too. Thirty-one NHL teams did not seem to agree. And so for the first time since breaking in with the Los Angeles Kings in 2008, Boyle found himself watching the league move on without him.

“It was awkward,” Boyle said. “It was different.”

And how, he hopes, it’s over after Boyle received a professional tryout contract from the Penguins on the eve of camp. All it does, really, is afford him an opportunity to show there’s still plenty of life in his 36-year-old legs.

Hey, he’ll take it.

“It’s a chance for me to get back in the league with a good team, a really good team,” Boyle said after Thursday’s session. “The roster speaks for itself. You get to play with some superstars in this league. Some guys that have changed the way the game is played in this league.”

Even if those guys — star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — are unavailable at the moment while recovering from wrist (Crosby) and knee (Malkin) surgeries. Their absence, however, helped open the door for Boyle. The Penguins could use an intimidating presence to make them more difficult to play against, and the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Boyle is well aware that is the one component he will always bring to the ice no matter where he suits up.

“I need to be able to use (my body), whether it’s just separating a guy from a puck or throwing a big hit if the chance happens,” he said.

Boyle is more than just a big body. He’s scored 130 goals in 805 games for seven teams, most notably helping the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Penguins opened the preseason Monday night with a 3-0 loss to Columbus.