Former first round pick forced to take PTO to keep NHL career alive

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Liam
September 9, 2023 (10:08 PM)

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Teams across the National Hockey League have been handing out several professional tryout contracts, mostly to aging veterans looking to extend their career. One of the most active teams in that market is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have now signed a former first round pick to a tryout option.

Going into Saturday, the Penguins have signed three players to PTOs already - forward Austin Wagner as well a defencemen Libor Hajek and Mark Pysyk, and have now added the former first-round pick Colin White too.

According to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports, 2015 first-round pick Colin White has agreed to a professional tryout contract with the Penguins and will report for training camp and likely appear preseason games later this month.

"Colin White will be at @penguins training camp on a PTO." Lavoie said.

White, 26 years old, was selected 21st overall by the Ottawa Senators in 2015 and went on to appear in 224 games for them across parts of six seasons. In July 2022, the Senators bought out the remaining three seasons of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent.

However, White wasn't a free agent for long last summer. Just over a week after being bought out, White signed a one-year contract with the Florida Panthers. In 68 games for the Panthers, White had only 8 goals and 15 points, while adding two assists in 21 playoff games during their run to the Stanley Cup Final.

At the end of June, Panthers General Manager Bill Zito decided not to issue White a qualifying offer, which made him an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.