Every fall, National Hockey League clubs load up on professional try-out players. Part of the ubiquity of PTOs is having a consequence-free chance to see how they can do, but the other part is load management for the team’s veterans. With eight pre-season games to play and a requirement to dress eight veterans per game, having some PTO players to lighten the load can help keep players fresh for the regular season.
Well, the good news is the Flames should be perfectly fine for load management because they have oodles of players considered “veterans” under the CBA.
Definitions
The CBA defines pre-season veterans as follows:
For purposes of this Section 15.