- Teams are capped at four preseason games under the new CBA
- Any player with 100-plus NHL games is limited to two exhibition appearances
- Read below for how the new rules are shrinking PTO season across the league
PTO season just got a lot smaller.
Camps open in a couple of weeks, and the tryout circuit that usually fills early September is running straight into the new CBA. Teams are capped at four preseason games this fall. Buffalo played six last September, and longer exhibition slates were normal before that.
Veterans get squeezed harder. Any player with 100 or more NHL games is held to two exhibition appearances, so a tryout guy now gets two nights to win a job.
Brian La Rose of Pro Hockey Rumors walked through why that flips the math for teams. A tryout used to buy five or six looks at a player in different roles plus a couple weeks of practice. Now the evaluation leans on what a guy did last season instead of what he does in camp, and some clubs would rather spend those reps on a prospect.
Washington is already a live example. The Capitals brought in Cal Petersen on a tryout on Aug. 25:
Petersen has 106 NHL games between Los Angeles and Philadelphia. He clears the cutoff by six, which leaves him two exhibition games to sort out where he fits behind Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren and Clay Stevenson.
Calgary is in the same box with Alex Nylander, who is coming off a 53-point Calder Cup season with the Marlies:
The former eighth overall pick sits at 126 NHL games. Same cap, same two-game window to prove he belongs on a roster he has never cracked for long.
Vancouver drew the better hand. Chris Driedger, back in North America after a short KHL run with Traktor Chelyabinsk, has 67 NHL games:
He sits under the line, so the Canucks can run him out all four times while Thatcher Demko works back from hip surgery. A goalie with 33 fewer NHL games than Petersen gets double the audition.
The names still on the board are the ones with a real decision to make. Evander Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Adam Henrique and Patrik Laine are all unsigned. Taking a near-minimum contract now guarantees something. A tryout guarantees two games and a handshake.
Oilers GM Stan Bowman was asked last week about bringing in a tryout body and called it “not the worst idea.” He is right that a PTO costs a team nothing. The return on one just is not what it used to be.
