While September is generally known for the start of the preseason, it\u2019s also informally referred to by some as PTO season in terms of unrestricted free agents finding a place to play.\u00a0 Usually, the first couple of weeks of the month see dozens of players ink professional tryout agreements, or PTO deals.\u00a0 Quite a few of those players are vying for an NHL contract after free agency didn\u2019t yield the deal they were hoping for.\u00a0 Others will be hoping to secure two-way pacts and avoid needing to look overseas for a guaranteed agreement.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, a normal preseason ran the better part of three weeks with up to nine games. \u00a0For veterans hoping to get a one-way deal, there was also some use to the signing team, who could then count toward the minimum of eight required to dress for each preseason game.\u00a0 Basically, here\u2019s a chance to showcase yourself and now we don\u2019t have to play our own veterans as much.\u00a0 The system worked for both player and team, even though few typically were converted to full contracts.<\/p>\n
But now, the system is much different.\u00a0 As part of the agreement to expand the regular season from 82 to 84 games, teams are now capped at a maximum of four preseason games.\u00a0 (One exception is if there\u2019s a special one-off event game like Hockeyville; teams in those are allowed to play five.)\u00a0 In addition, players who have played 100 or more NHL games are capped at a maximum of two preseason appearances.<\/p>\n
That restriction on playing time for veterans makes it considerably less appealing to bring one in.\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing when you could give a player five or six games and a couple of weeks of practices to see how he fits in a couple of different roles.\u00a0 It\u2019s an entirely different thing when you\u2019re now capped at a shorter number of practices and all of two games to evaluate how a player fits in your lineup. \u00a0There\u2019s not much of a chance for a player to showcase themselves; deciding on his candidacy for a contract is more about his track record than how things are going a week and a half into training camp.<\/p>\n
Effectively, the evaluation time in much shorter to the point where some might not bother altogether, preferring to give a prospect an extra look instead.\u00a0 With several teams in spots where they may have to waive a youngster of note for the first time if he doesn\u2019t make the team, they arguably may be better suited going that approach than bring a player on a tryout in.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say that there won\u2019t be PTO agreements signed in the coming days.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already seen a few and more will be coming, especially for those hoping to secure a two-way deal.\u00a0 But it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see some veterans who would typically be inking PTOs either settling for a near-minimum contract now or holding out in the hopes of securing one, knowing that a couple of preseason games won\u2019t materially affect their value.\u00a0 With preseason games now just two weeks away, we won\u2019t have to wait long to see if the new preseason rules affect PTO season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While September is generally known for the start of the preseason, it\u2019s also informally referred to by some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[157823,49,48,448,2368,82],"class_list":["post-885344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-free-agency","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}