Four more players land PTOs with top contenders

Training camps open in a few days and unsigned veteran players still have time to earn a contract with an NHL team when given a professional try-out deal in order to impress enough during training camp.

On Friday morning, four more players got that shot when insider Frank Seravalli announced that the Florida Panthers had offered two PTOs, giving a chance to forwards Daniel Walcott and Josh Lopina.

The Pittsburgh Penguins also offered a PTO to winger Brett Murray, while the New York Rangers added defenseman Andrej Sustr to their training camp roster on a PTO. Sustr spent the last three years playing in Europe.

Several other players were signed to PTOs earlier in the offseason, most notably veteran forward Milan Lucic, who did not play last season after taking a leave of absence from the Boston Bruins in November 2023 and later entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.

Lucic got a professional try-out deal with the St. Louis Blues, hoping for a redemption story and a much-awaited return to the NHL. He collected two assists in four games in 2023-24, and has a total of 586 points (233 goals, 353 assists) in 1,177 regular-season games for the Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, and 77 points (29 goals, 48 assists) in 136 playoff games. He won the Cup with the Bruins in 2011.

Other players who were recently offered PTOs include Jack Johnson with the Minnesota Wild, Oliver Kylington in Carolina with the Hurricanes, Conor Sheary with the New York Rangers and Brendan Smith with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Many more will be looking to earn a job in the NHL. For now, Walcott, Lopina, Murray and Sustr will need to work hard to impress their respective team and crack the roster ahead of the 2025-26 season.