When the calendar turned to September and Derek Roy still hadn’t received a firm contract offer, the 32-year-old center who has scored nearly 200 goals in almost 750 NHL games decided to do something he hadn’t done since his youth.
He accepted an invitation to try out for a team.
Roy joined the Washington Capitals on a professional tryout agreement, commonly known as a PTO, on Sept. 13, five days before training camp opened. He was one of more than 40 players around the league who, frozen out by an unfriendly free agent signing period this summer, suddenly found their careers in limbo.