The 34-year-old Gagne, whose résumé includes a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal, is in Bruins camp on a tryout. Highly pursued players do not attend camp in this fashion.

For 14 seasons, Simon Gagne entered training camp with a guarantee. Regardless of how he performed, he had a contract, an NHL salary, and regular work as a skilled winger.

Gagne, like fellow invitees Ville Leino and Bracken Kearns, is now a hockey vagrant, guaranteed nothing but his preseason per diem and hotel reimbursement.

“I’m used to being a guy who used camp to get ready for the season,” said Gagne. “In this case, I’m not allowed to do that. I feel almost like my first year with the Flyers. I definitely have to show something here.”


On Friday at Ristuccia Arena, Gagne will hit the ice for the first time in his unfamiliar role. He will wear his usual No. 12, the numeral Jarome Iginla left behind as well as $3.7 million in bonus overages. Gagne, a natural left wing, will start camp on the right side in the fight to fill three openings, including the one created by the absence of Reilly Smith.

Jay Pandolfo made the Bruins after a camp invitation in 2012-13. In 2010-11, Brian McGrattan broke camp with the varsity. Glen Metropolit was a critical all-around cog in 2007-08.

Conversely, in 2011-12, former Washington captain Chris Clark was among the final cuts.

This season, the three players on tryouts will fight with younger players under contract, including 18-year-old David Pastrnak. A first-round pick like Pastrnak could be collecting Black-and-Gold paychecks for the next dozen years. Gagne could be on the street by next week.

“With it comes uncertainty,” general manager Peter Chiarelli said of the absences of Smith and Torey Krug. “We all like things to be certain. But the cream will rise to the top.


“On a smaller level, we had a competition last year for a couple forward spots, and we did OK. We’ve got some invites. We’ve got some younger guys pushing. I’m looking forward to it.”

During his best days in Philadelphia, Gagne was a dangerous scorer. He scored 40-plus goals in back-to-back seasons in 2005-06 and 2006-07. But Gagne’s 288 career goals and 309 assists will not matter one bit if he can’t shake off the atrophy of a season away from hockey.

It was a sabbatical, Gagne still believes, the Flyers helped to initiate. Gagne was an unrestricted free agent last summer after his two-year contract with the Kings expired. He believed Philadelphia was interested in bringing him back. He was wrong.

“All summer, I had good talks with the Flyers the whole time,” Gagne said. “There was no question in my mind I was going to be with the Flyers. Right before camp, things went down. From that point on, I kind of had a little bad taste in my mouth. Mentally, it was tough.”

No other contracts were available, not for an aging wing with a history of head, neck, and groin injuries. Several teams talked about tryout invitations. The interest was not reciprocal.

Gagne got some calls in December. But it would have been hard for Gagne to join a team midseason. It would have been like trying to merge onto a fast-moving highway missing two of four cylinders.


So Gagne decided to close shop on 2013-14 and use it to heal. His body responded. So did his head.

By last spring, when the Kings, his most recent employers, were chasing another Cup, Gagne ramped up his training in Quebec City. Retirement was not an option yet.

“Before coming back, you want to make sure that yeah, physically you’re OK,” Gagne said. “But mentally, you need to be willing to push yourself again. It’s one thing to be ready physically. But if you’re not ready mentally, it doesn’t make sense to come back.”

The contract never came. But a summer conversation with fellow Quebec City native Patrice Bergeron led to a bite from Chiarelli. Gagne didn’t want to accept a tryout last year. This time, it was all he had.

“When you get the call and you sign that tryout contract, things went even better,” Gagne said of his training. “You have something in front of you to push yourself. You push yourself for something. But if you don’t have something, it’s tough.”

Taking a year off hockey is not easy. Tim Thomas bade the NHL goodbye in 2012-13 and returned last year. Groin injuries did not help Thomas with his reentry. Now Thomas is out of work, perhaps for good.

Gagne might be in a similar position. He’ll need to reclaim his skating and his hands, two of his most trusted assets. Nobody knows how quickly those things will come back, if they do at all.


“Obviously he’s been a very good player on all levels,” Chiarelli said. “Clutch player. Fast player. Smart player.

“If he can recover and regain some of that — he hasn’t played in a year — there’s the speed element, veteran, and he plays both wings.”

It’s hard to reenter the league. It’s even harder to say goodbye to all that’s familiar: competition, good company, a paycheck with lots of zeros. Gagne is not at the point where he’s willing to part with all that.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.