Veteran free agent center Paul Stastny isn’t interested in proving his worth to potential suitors on a PTO during training camp and is only interested in firm contract offers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on yesterday’s edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast.
Stastny, 37, was relegated to a bottom-six role for the first time in his NHL career last season with the Carolina Hurricanes. It took him quite a while to ink a deal last summer, too – he ended up signing a one-year, $1.5MM contract with Carolina on August 23, but that was still well in advance of training camp. There’s now less than a week remaining before this year’s camps kick off, and Stastny still finds himself on the outside looking in. He’s coming off a 2022-23 season that saw him notch nine goals and a career-low 13 assists for 22 points in 73 games while averaging just 11:52 per game.
Playing a fourth-line role for Stastny was quite a change of pace. Colorado’s second-round pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft had never averaged less than 17 minutes per game in a season during his career. Injuries aren’t a concern for him heading into next season – he didn’t miss any time with Carolina last season due to injuries and hasn’t missed significant time since the 2018-19 season with the Vegas Golden Knights. While his offensive ability and foot speed may be diminished from his peak, he’s still the reliable two-way presence he’s been throughout his career and would carry value as a fourth-line center. This isn’t anything new, either. His offensive pace has largely seen a linear path downward since his age-30 season back in 2015-16.
With Stastny likely to reprise a fourth-line role next season, however, his options for any contract much above the $775K league minimum are slim to none. Most teams with vacancies at the petition have gone the PTO route to evaluate options for the role – namely, the Edmonton Oilers, who have brought in Sam Gagner and Brandon Sutter as veteran options on tryouts in addition to free agent acquisition Lane Pederson. Most of the teams that do still have openings also have younger centers in play to make the team, and likely wouldn’t want to box them out of a job by giving Stastny a guaranteed contract.
It’ll be interesting to see if Stastny changes his tune by this time next week if he remains without an NHL home. He likely still has at least one solid season of hockey left in him and is still chasing a Stanley Cup after suiting up in 1,145 regular-season games across 17 seasons.
Well good luck with that then
He could probably fit nicely in on Edmonton if they could find the space required.
Hang on, let me say it before Wilf does, so we don’t need to hear him.
“Just another guy who can’t let go. “
His commitment to projection is admirable.
I’m a little concerned he wasn’t the first post on here saying that
Give Wilf some slack. He is busy warming up his typing finger, ready to attack Jaromir Jagr, on a different blog, for collecting a paycheck for too long.
Does that space where Wilf lives rent free in your head come furnished?
At or above 50% on the dots for his entire career. More takeaways than giveaways for his entire career. Yet, he can’t skate like he did in his early 20s. Hmm, very few guys his age can today. He’s pretty reliable and hasn’t lost too many games to injury. He’ll probably have to wait for some team to rack up some injuries before they wake up and smell the burning toast. Sorry, @Wilf, he’s not past it, yet, but he may not get the chance to prove it, either.
Wilf what do you think? Anything original?
@pawtucket – Maybe he’s decided to take the night off. Bedard just popped 3 beauties tonight, so @Wilf might be celebrating.
He doesn’t celebrate. If he is not miserable, he is not happy.
get off his lawn clouds!
@doghockey – He could be celebrating by slamming down a 6-pack of Moxie (bottles, not cans). He’d get bitter-beer face, but not fail the old roadside sobriety test.
@wreckage – He shouldn’t complain about that, either. No mowing or trimming, and if the neighbor’s dog gets errant, it’ll just fall through.
Wilf hasn’t had a brain fart to blow the cob webs out as of yet
Where is there cap space?
@Four4fore – Or, more correctly, “Where is the team interest, cap space & contract slots?”
At his age & career earnings he can do whatever he wants.
Hi Josh. Several spelling mistakes in the fourth paragraph.
Bedard should quit now before he is just clinging on to a career past its prime.
Back to Winnipeg!