Could be a mild PTO cycle for the Penguins this year

Is there room at the inn for veteran tryouts? Maybe not in Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Penguins were very active with professional tryouts (PTO) in 2023. They signed forwards Austin Wagner, Colin White and defenders Libor Hajek and Mark Pysyk to PTOs before training camp. Then, later into the season, Jesse Puljujarvi began his journey back from double hip surgery on a PTO.

The results turned out pretty decent too for the Pens. White and Puljujarvi were eventually signed to NHL contracts, though White was waived during the season and claimed by Montreal. Hajek was signed to an AHL contract by Wilkes-Barre before deciding to head back to his native Czechia. Wagner was cut free and ended up playing in Sweden.

PTO’s can be useful to help satisfy requirements for NHL exhibition games to dress so many players with NHL experience last year. For that reason, teams occasionally will grab players that might not have much of a chance to earn a spot with their club simply to help them get through the pre-season schedule. That can’t be ruled out for Pittsburgh, but the fact of the matter this year is that they are over-filled as it is and don’t have much motivation to add any veteran tryouts.

At the moment Pittsburgh already has 52 contracts signed for 2024-25 with a maximum of 50. They’ll cut down under the limit through four candidates to “slide” when assigned back to junior/Europe— Brayden Yager, Tanner Howe, Emil Pieniniemi and Harrison Brunicke to take them back down to 48. If a spot is held open for Yager to make a run at making a nine-game cameo, they might be operating at 49 for a short time. Having so many already under contract is the result of loading up with players like Cody Glass and Kevin Hayes to acquire draft picks, which in essence can serve as the camp players on tryout (that already, of course, come with contractual

Another factor is that the players available don’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence. Logan Brown (who didn’t play in 2023-24) and Jakub Vrana are the only players to agree to a PTO so far. It’s rumored that Matt Martin (TOR) might be another.

One area that stands out is defense, however. Teams can never get enough quantity of defense and if you look at Wilkes, each of their top six blueliners in terms of games played have moved on from 2023-24 (if making the assumption that Jack St. Ivany will be in Pittsburgh). The Pens have Owen Pickering turning pro and could be looking for a bigger opportunity for a youngster like Isaac Belliveau, but it does stand out that the organization has lost the Dmitri Samorukov, Jack Rathbone, Xavier Ouellet type of LHD’s and done little to replace them — as of yet. Samorukov was a late AHL signee last year and Rathbone was acquired via trade, which points out that players can be added from different avenues than PTOs at this time of year. Whether through PTO and eventual AHL contract (like Hajek last year), Pittsburgh might look to beef up on defense with another body for the AHL level given what they’ve lost in the past few months.

Given contract limits, and overall team strength, the Pens shouldn’t be dishing out nearly as many PTO’s as last year when four were added. Even if they do utilize this for a couple of camp bodies, it would be almost impossible for PTO’s to make as big of an impact in 2024-25 for Pittsburgh as they did in 2023-24 (and considering that White and Puljujarvi combined for four points in 33 total games, “impact” can be a relative term as it is). That likely means that for this season the quest to keep the bottom of the roster churning might need to rely on low-level trades, waiver claims and AHL contracts instead of eye-catching tryouts for players who were in the NHL last season.