Can the four players on professional tryouts make the team?

The New York Rangers have four veterans at training camp on professional tryouts.  Do they have a shot at making the team?

Every year, the New York Rangers invite veteran players to training camp on a professional tryout contract (PTO).  This year they signed forwards Micheal Haley and Connor Brickley and defensemen Joe Morrow and Mason Geertsen.  Based on past PTO’s they don’t have much of a chance at making the team.

The Hockey News just did a story about the players with a shot at a contract and included Morrow in that group.  The explanation is that there is actually competition for the sixth and seventh slots on the defense corps and the Rangers could use a veteran presence on the blue line.  That sounds an awful lot like Fredrik Claesson who was not qualified by the Rangers at the end of last season.  Claesson is on a PTO with Carolina this month.

Morrow is a former first round draft pick, selected 23rd overall in 2011 by the Pittsburgh Penguins.  A lefty shot, the 26 year old has played with Boston, Montreal and Winnipeg.  He played in 41 games for the Jets last season.

Mason Geertsen is a minor league defenseman who has played most of his pro career in the Colorado Avalanche system.  He is 24 and shoots lefthanded.

Ranger fans are familiar with Brickley who played 14 games with the Blueshirts last season and with Haley, 33,  who played briefly with the Rangers in 2013.

A past history of PTO’s

Based on past PTO’s, things don’t look good for any of the four.   Last year the team invited goalie Jeremy Brodeur, son of Marty who was not signed.   In 2017, they invited forwards Andrew Desjardins and Bobby Farnham.  Both didn’t make the cut and are playing in Europe.

In 2016, they brought six players to camp, with the most prominent 10-year NHL veteran Maxim Lapierre.  Needless to say, all six were not signed and Lapierre labors for Lugano in the Swiss league.

In 2015, the brought defenseman Brett Bellemore to camp along with Russian forward Kirill Kabanov.  Kabanov was a former third round draft choice of the New York Islanders while Bellemore played two seasons with the Hurricanes.  Unsigned, both players are in Europe.

Other PTO’s include Tomas Kaberle and Henrik Tallinder, in 2014 and goalie Johan Hedberg in 2013. Occasionally, PTO’s are signed after the season has started.  Kaberle actually played two games for the Hartford Wolf Pack before being released.  The team then signed Tallinder to a PTO and he played four games in Hartford.

The common thread here is that most PTO’s don’t ultimately lead to contracts.  They are often a last shot for a player before retirement or a move to Europe.

A success story

There was one situation where a player on a PTO actually ended up with a Rangers contract only it was a PTO with the Devils that led to it.  In this case it was Anton Stralman who signed a PTO with the New Jersey in September 2011.   The Devils didn’t sign him, but someone on the Rangers must have been watching because they went out and signed the free agent to a one  year contract.  That led to a two year contract a year later, a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals and a $22 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

There are some other PTO success stories out there, but not with the Rangers.  Former Blueshirt Petr Sykora won a job with the Devils in 2011 and went on to play in the Stanley Cup Finals that season.  Some other names include Mason Raymond with the Toronto Maple Leafs and ex-Ranger Lee Stempniak who has parlayed two PTO’s into contracts with the Devils and Bruins.

The question remains if Joe Morrow or any of the other three players will be able to turn their  tryouts into jobs with either the Rangers or Hartford.