In a strange turn of events, one of the hottest free agents on the market has signed a professional try-out for training camp. The St. Louis Blues have announced Mike Hoffman will join the team in camp in the hopes of getting a contract for the regular season.
Hoffman had a very good year with the Florida Panthers in 2019-20, scoring 29 goals and 59 points in 69 games. In the previous season, the 31-year-old had 36 goals and 70 points, which makes a PTO seem very odd. It was expected that Hoffman would get a multi-million dollar contract with someone, even if it was only for one year. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic and TSN's Darren Dreger provide the reasoning behind the PTO.
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A training camp PTO allows the player to participate in all training camp activities but does not create any exclusive rights of negotiation. Hoffman will remain able to sign a contract with any NHL team while the PTO is effective. The PTO expires at the end of training camp.
Hoffman has scored 20 or more goals in six consecutive seasons and recorded 50 or more points in five straight seasons. He has played 493 NHL games, scoring 172 goals and 187 assists (359 points). He was originally drafted by Ottawa in the fifth round of the 2009 NHL Draft.
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