Toronto Maple Leafs

Why the Right PTO Isn’t About Adding Another Body

An NHL PTO isn’t about finding talent. It’s about finding the player who brings something your roster doesn’t already have.

by
Old Prof
August 29, 2026

Every summer, teams hand out a bunch of professional tryouts (PTOs), and every summer, someone in the comments points out the obvious problem. With only a handful of preseason games these days, how much can a team actually learn about a guy who’s played 100-plus NHL games already? It’s a good question. But that’s not really what a PTO is for in the first place.

Pulling in a PTO Isn’t About Finding Talent

A PTO isn’t really about evaluating raw talent. Teams already know what a guy can do; that’s why he’s got NHL games on his résumé. It’s about answering a much narrower question: Does this player fill a particular hole on this roster, right now, for basically no cost? That’s it. It’s a choice about fit, not a talent search.

That’s actually the smarter way to think about what Toronto should do regarding any PTO decision this fall. The real question isn’t “is this guy good enough?” It’s “do we actually need another guy fighting for this job?” If the Maple Leafs already have three or four bodies competing for a fourth-line spot or the seventh-defenseman job, adding one more name to that pile doesn’t tell them anything new. What actually helps is bringing in someone who’s different from what’s already in the room. A player with a different skill set, a different style, something the existing group doesn’t have.

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PTOs Can Turn Into NHL Regulars

And PTOs can absolutely turn into real difference-makers. One recent example was Mike Hoffman, who signed a PTO with the St. Louis Blues before eventually earning a one-year, $4 million contract. The Blues already knew what Hoffman could do. The tryout was about whether the player and the situation made sense. It’s proof that a smart, low-cost swing on a tryout can genuinely pay off if the fit is right.

That’s the real lesson for a team like Toronto. It’s not about grabbing another warm body just because a spot’s open. It’s about asking what this roster is actually missing and going out to find someone who fills that specific gap — even if it costs nothing more than a training camp invite to find out.

The Right PTO Can Solve a Roster Problem

Two preseason games won’t tell you everything about a player’s game. But two games can still be enough to begin answering a simpler question: does he bring something the rest of the roster doesn’t already have? Those are different questions entirely, and it’s the only one that really counts.