George Richards, FHN Publisher
After months of being out on the NHL’s open market, (now former) Florida Panthers winger Mike Hoffman has settled on a home — and it is with the St. Louis Blues.
According to the Blues, Hoffman is coming — officially, at least — on the cheap.
He has agreed to a professional tryout (PTO) with the Blues which means he is going to training camp without getting paid.
Something strange in saying that, eh?
Hoffman, 31, led the Panthers in goals in each of the two seasons he played in South Florida and was a free agent for the first time and the best he could score was a PTO?
Well, there’s more to this than what is on the surface.
The Blues have serious cap problems at this very moment but it is widely thought that the team and Hoffman have a contract in place for the 2021 season.
Only he cannot sign it right now. The PTO is merely a placeholder until the real contract can be signed.
While a lot of people on social media are crying foul about potential cap circumvention, well, there is nothing illegal about talking contract numbers with a free agent and then offering said free agent a PTO until said agreement could be reached.
The season does not start until Jan. 13. Hoffman will be signed by the Blues then.
On Sunday night, Elliott Friedman of Sportsnet surmised that Hoffman will get a one-year deal from St. Louis in the neighborhood of $4-5 million.
The Blues have to make a few moves (Alexander Steen will not play this season and Vladimir Tarasenko will also head to LTIR) to make which would free up over $13 million in cap space.
For Hoffman, who told me numerous times he was hoping to work something out and return to the Panthers, he gets to play for a contender in St. Louis.
He also gets to play in the West Division this season which means a lot of meetings with the likes of former Ottawa teammate Erik Karlsson and the San Jose Sharks.
Last December, Hoffman and Karlsson finally met on the ice for the first time since their spat in Ottawa went public.
Hoffman and Karlsson scuffled a little during the game — but Hoffman said he wanted a little more than that.
“I have been thinking about this game for a long time,” Hoffman said afterward.
“It is a part of hockey. … He actually played tonight and I asked if he wanted to go and obviously he did not. I chased him around for an entire shift, kept asking and asking.
“He wouldn’t. He kept saying ‘I am not fighting you’.”
As for Hoffman’s two seasons with the Panthers, it has been well documented by myself and others that it appeared he was a well-liked teammate who was very important on the ice.
The Panthers are going to miss that booming shot of his, and his play for the final few months of the regular season — as well as the Toronto series — will also be hard to replace.
“Hoff is a unique player with lot of ability and some tremendous assets. He can shoot it as good as anyone in the league,” coach Joel Quenneville said before the Game 4 loss to the Islanders in Toronto.
“I think he has some good play recognition offensively and defensively, has the commitment to play equally as hard on both sides of the puck. That’s something he can work on because when that commitment is there, he’s a complete player and the complete package.
“He’s one heck of a hockey player. He does a lot of good things for us. He has speed, wants the puck, wants to score, wants to make plays. I think how he has progressed defensively really adds to his offensive game.”