We’ve made it through the NHL Entry Draft and its associated shenanigans.

We’ve survived the Free Agent Frenzy.

Now comes what is always the final, and perhaps the least exciting, segment of the hockey offseason, and that’s the PTO Roundup.

Every year, a certain cadre of free agent players who did not receive the kind of contract offers they thought they deserved will sign Professional Try-Out deals with various clubs. Usually, these PTOs entail participation at training camp and play in a handful of exhibition games, and then the most successful of PTOs might sign a one-year contract.

This week, Logan Brown signed a PTO with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Jakub Vrana agreed to one with the Washington Capitals. They’ll presumably be joined by countless others in the month or so remaining until the opening of camps.

One of the newest Canucks, Daniel Sprong, successfully earned himself a contract with the Seattle Kraken off a PTO in 2022, and went on to score 21 goals for them that year.

Another new Canuck, Danton Heinen, successfully earned a contract with the Boston Bruins last year, then scored 36 points for them and earned himself a two-year deal from the Canucks this summer as a result.

The Canucks have invited some truly notable names to PTOs over the years, including Owen Nolan, Brendan Morrison, and Travis Hamonic. Their most recent success story was Alex Chiasson, who came to camp in 2021 and won himself a full-time spot for that season.

Danny Dekeyser didn’t make the cut in 2022, and last year’s camp did not feature any PTOs aside from those players already signed to AHL contracts with Abbotsford.

But what will Training Camp 2024 entail?

On the one hand, the Canucks’ roster is as deep as it has been in recent memory, and there are a veritable butt-load of prospects eager to push their way in, including Vasily Podkolzin, Linus Karlsson, Arshdeep Bains, and Aatu Raty. There may be a real desire to stick with what the organization already has on hand and give all of their existing talent an honest shot at making the team.

On the other hand, despite the NHL’s salary cap shooting up this offseason, there are still a ton of quality free agents available on the open market. This late in the summer, many of those players will have to resort to PTOs, and since there is very little risk involved in the signing of a PTO compared to the potential reward, there’s reason for GM Patrik Allvin and Co. to at least consider throwing out a few offers.

If the Canucks do sign anyone to a PTO, here are some more candidates that might be considered ‘intriguing’, on top of the five we already listed yesterday.

There are those who will look at the age of this player and give him a hard pass. Which is understandable, because not only is Giordano already 40 years old, he’ll also turn 41 on October 3 before the regular season even begins.

So why does he make our list? Three reasons.

One, Giordano has already announced an intention to play this season, and has made it clear he is not ready for retirement.

Two, despite a decreased role for the Maple Leafs last season, Giordano performed pretty darn well. Not Norris Trophy-level, of course, but Giordano did have among the best defensive results of the entire Maple Leafs blueline, including a 57% control of high-danger chances against medium-quality competition.

Three, the Canucks currently don’t have a lot of depth at LHD. Next up behind Quinn Hughes, Carson Soucy, and Derek Forbort is probably Christian Wolanin or Guillaume Brisebois. Giordano immediately sticks out as a higher-quality and certainly more reliable option, especially if playing every night is not the expectation.

In signing Kiefer Sherwood, the Canucks announced an intention to be harder to play against this season. Why not really commit to that bit by signing one of the most hated players in hockey?

Cousins is perhaps the most effective agitator in the game today, but he might be a little too annoying, given that he just went to the Stanley Cup Finals with Florida and yet finds himself without a contract in mid-August.

If the Canucks want an especially heated battle for their limited fourth line spots, bringing Cousins into camp is one way to do it. Should he make the team, he absolutely has the chance to be more impactful than a more vanilla player, like say Nils Åman.

Then again, the Canucks have a tight dressing room, and bringing in Mr. Unpopular, even for a few weeks in September, might be something to avoid.

We bumped Klingberg further down the list just so we didn’t have three entries in a row that amount to “this player shoots right and makes passes from the blueline.”

At least Klingberg has a few advantages over Schultz and Barrie in this regard, in that he’s younger and has more recent examples of high-quality play under his belt. But Klingberg is also a total question mark after missing most of the 2023/24 with injury recovery.

He’s probably the most high-risk, high-reward player available. Then again, PTOs are, by their very nature, not very high-risk. And if the Canucks want to get their hands on a good PMD, as opposed to just a passable one, then a bouncing-back Klingberg is the only real option available on the market.

Make no bones about it, Martin is nearing the end of his career. If Lou Lamoriello is ready to move on from him, it’s safe to assume the rest of the league is, too.

Martin has always been a slower player, and these days he’s downright plodding. That said, he’s still a savvy veteran who can do the same things well that he always has – namely, hit and fight.

The Canucks have some toughness on the roster already, but they are hoping that players like Dakota Joshua and Vincent Desharnais play regular roles, and that means limiting the dropping of gloves. If they wanted a real enforcer somewhere in the mix, Martin is the best available. And if he doesn’t make the team, having him in Abbotsford to protect the young talent is also a desirable outcome.