On Wednesday morning, the Edmonton Oilers signed forward Mike Hoffman to a professional tryout. It’s their second PTO in less than a week after the one they signed Travis Dermott to.
The 34-year-old left winger has played in 745 NHL games and has scored 487 points, 228 of which are goals. Earlier in his career, he was a pretty good 25-30 goal scorer, scoring 36 one year, but he hasn’t hit the 20-goal mark since the 2019/2020 season. For someone who spent the last three seasons on the bottom five teams, 92 points in that span have been decent.
I don’t have the highest expectations for this PTO, as another forward is the last thing Edmonton really needs, and Hoffman is pretty one-dimensional. This is probably an audition for him being scouted by other teams. However, just a day after my Projected Oilers Forward Lines article was released, it just got a little bit more fun to entertain, should he choose to sign a contract with the Oilers. Perhaps it signals my dream of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins being the third-line center finally coming true.
We’ll see how this plays out. Do you agree with this PTO? Do you not? Let me know.
