Training camps are achingly close on the horizon, which means that teams across the league are making some last-minute additions to their rosters in an effort to perhaps uncover a diamond in the rough.
In other words: It’s PTO season, baby!
This past weekend was filled with a flurry of professional tryout offers extended to multiple players still on the open market. So, let’s take a look at the most notable ones and determine what each team could be getting in their camp invitee.
Zach Aston-Reese – Toronto Maple Leafs
2021-22 Stat Line: 69 GP, 5 goals, 10 assists, 15 points, 13:02 TOI
By far the most likely member of this list to earn a contract for the coming season, Aston-Reese is attending Leafs camp with his eyes set firmly on carving out a spot for on the team’s re-vamped fourth line.
Frankly, it’s kind of surprising that the 28-year-old could only muster a training camp invite at all, really. Aston-Reese is undoubtedly an NHL-caliber player — a defensively-focused forward who drives possession despite being tasked with unfavorable usage and can add an element of speed and forechecking to his team’s bottom-six that most similar units around the league lack.
Will he put up much in the way of offense? No, he won’t. Aston-Reese racked up just five goals and 15 points in 69 games last season split between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks, managing to earn a positive expected-goal share, however, despite beginning nearly 70 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone.
By all accounts, Toronto was not the only team to extend Aston-Reese a camp invite this summer. And if he can’t find a spot on the Leafs, there’s a good chance someone else will scoop him up.
Jimmy Vesey – New York Rangers
2021-22 Stat Line: 68 GP, 8 goals, 7 assists, 15 points, 14:25 TOI
I imagine the New York Rangers as Thanos, sitting on their throne and lecturing Jimmy Vesey about how his failure inevitably led him back to them.
Maybe that’s a little harsh. But it always seemed like Vesey would wind up back in the Big Apple eventually, especially after spending the first three seasons of his career there following the frenzy over his signing.
Vesey never managed to replicate the success he had as a Ranger all those years ago. Since leaving New York in free agency back in 2019, Vesey has topped out at 11 goals in a single season while bouncing around between the Sabres, Maple Leafs, Canucks, and Devils, failing to earn regular NHL…
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