The Penguins have issued two PTO contracts. Neither is the one I think most people were hoping for.
Pittsburgh #Penguins have signed two players to professional try outs.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) August 30, 2023
LD Libor Hajek, who split time between the Rangers and Wolf Pack last season.
RD Mark Pysyk, who was under contract with Detroit but on IR all of last season.https://t.co/4enJBMnM5c
Libor Hajek has bounced around the Rangers system after being drafted by Tampa Bay in the second round in 2016. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he isn't an offensive defenseman. In 110 NHL games he has four goals and 12 points. I don't have any expectations with this signing
Mark Pysyk is a player in the past I've had interest in. He had sneaky good underlying numbers a few years back.
Unfortunately, he has been injured and missed all of last season with an Achilles tear. He's 30 now and we'll have to see how he bounces back from missing an entire season. He started as a defenseman and was used as a forward at various times in his NHL career. If he can play at an NHL level once more it will be bonus. On the surface this looks like a very good veteran signing for the Baby Penguins. This is worth taking a shot on because he's been a functional NHL player for the majority of his career and would be fighting for Chad Ruhwedel's position which is seemingly always up for grabs.
It would have been very cool if we got the Tomas Tatar PTO signing, but we'll have to wait and see for now.
Thanks for reading!