Nearly 10 weeks after NHL free agency opened, Curtis Lazar is still out there, and that alone makes him worth a closer look for the Edmonton Oilers.
The veteran centre’s one-year deal with Edmonton expired on June 30, and at first glance it seemed like the Oilers had already moved on. July brought a wave of forward additions, with the team signing Mathieu Joseph and Eduards Tralmaks in free agency and bringing back Colton Dach, Max Jones and Owen Michaels.
But the picture changed a bit once the injuries started piling up. Wingers Mattias Janmark and Matthew Savoie are both expected to miss the start of training camp because of offseason injuries, and that has opened the door to more speculation that Edmonton may still need another body up front.
That’s where the idea of a professional tryout contract comes in.
PTOs are short-term NHL deals that let veterans come to camp and suit up in the preseason. For unsigned players, they’re a chance to force their way into a standard contract. For teams, they’re a low-risk way to see whether a player can fill a need.
The Oilers usually bring a couple players to camp on PTOs. In some offseasons, they’ve signed none. In others, as many as seven.
Lazar seems tailor-made for that kind of opportunity. If there’s one thing his track record suggests, it’s that he’d approach a tryout with the right mindset.
From his days with the Edmonton Oil Kings through his NHL career, he’s built a reputation as a worker without ego, the kind of player who doesn’t walk into camp expecting anything to be handed to him. That’s exactly the sort of attitude that can turn a PTO into a one-year deal.
And the on-ice case is pretty straightforward.
In 45 games with Edmonton last season, Lazar led the Oilers in faceoff percentage at 61.2 percent. He was also one of their top hitters at 14.20 per 60 minutes and posted the team’s lowest giveaway rate at 1.30 per 60 minutes. The production line only showed six points - four goals and two assists - but that didn’t tell the whole story.
At six-foot and 203 pounds, Lazar brought physical play, smart checking and a steady game that rarely created problems for his own team. He handled the 13th-forward role about as cleanly as a player can.
If he wasn’t in the lineup, he didn’t sulk. If he sat for a week, he came back ready.
The wrinkle, of course, is that Edmonton has a new coach. Mike Babcock was hired in June to replace Kris Knoblauch, and the Oilers’ decision not to bring Lazar back right away suggests there may not be an obvious spot for him.
Still, it’s difficult to picture a coach who wouldn’t appreciate what Lazar offers. His workmanlike style and team-first approach fit an old-school sensibility, and Babcock fits that description.
With 12 NHL seasons behind him and still only in his early 30s, Lazar is going to get another shot somewhere. The question is whether Edmonton should be the team to give it to him.
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