Brian Boyle in talks with at least 1 NHL team.

It looks as though 34 year old veteran center Brian Boyle will have a path pack to the National Hockey League if he so chooses for the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season.

Boyle, who has become a fan favorite across the league in recent years due to his battles with cancer, was coming off a season in which he split time between the New Jersey Devils and later, the Nashville Predators. It was a pretty good bounce back year from a player dealing with serious medical issues, a year that saw Boyle appear in a combined 73 NHL games in which he recorded a combined 18 goals and 6 assists for a total of 24 points. In spite of the fact that he had a decent showing for himself Boyle was not rewarded with another NHL contract this summer and in fact remains an unrestricted free agent at the time of this writing.

That may not be the case for very much longer however as a new report from ABC News' Mark Armstrong has now revealed that the Carolina Hurricanes have reached out to Brian Boyle and expressed interest in his services. Now it is unclear if the Hurricanes are offering him an NHL contract or if the two sides have discussed a professional tryout offer, but what is clear is that the two sides are indeed talking. Perhaps most interesting of all however is the fact that Armstrong has hinted that another player's decision could ultimately determine Boyle's fate in Carolina. 

According to Armstrong the Hurricanes are viewing Boyle as something of an "insurance policy" for Carolina Hurricanes veteran forward Justin Williams. Williams, a veteran with tons of NHL experience in his own right, is the organization's captain and is by all accounts the leader in the Hurricanes locker room. Although that is the case now there has been lots of talk suggesting that Williams may choose to retire this summer rather than pursue another season in the NHL, and if he does walk away bringing in another experienced and respected veteran like Boyle would make all the sense in the world. 

The problem is that no one knows which way the chips will fall when it comes to the decision from Williams, which may also mean that Boyle is currently in a holding pattern with the Canes.