Jeremy Laura: Wings sign minor league center Cameron Hillis to PTO

The guy has been a bust at the AHL level! Is Stevie recruiting for Toledo? It would be a total surprise for him to make the Wings!

The guy has been a bust at the AHL level! Is Stevie recruiting for Toledo? It would be a total surprise for him to make the Wings!
- HenryHockey

Yeah, even link mentions ECHL. Not sure what precipitated

The guy has been a bust at the AHL level! Is Stevie recruiting for Toledo? It would be a total surprise for him to make the Wings!
- HenryHockey

Just need bodies for the initial training camp roster and possibly filling out the Griffins. It's very common for players with no real NHL potential get signed to PTOs and ATOs each year for this purpose.

He'll either get signed to a Griffins-only contract (and probably split the year between the AHL and ECHL) or released from the org.

Just need bodies for the initial training camp roster and possibly filling out the Griffins. It's very common for players with no real NHL potential get signed to PTOs and ATOs each year for this purpose.

He'll either get signed to a Griffins-only contract (and probably split the year between the AHL and ECHL) or released from the org.
- Sven22

That’s where I’m at. To have the full “camp roster” and AHL bodies it’s pretty jammed up at the beginning

That’s where I’m at. To have the full “camp roster” and AHL bodies it’s pretty jammed up at the beginning
- Jeremy Laura

Indeed. Last year the Red Wings' training camp roster had almost 70 players.

If you add up all the players under contract with the Red Wings, all the players under contract with the Griffins, and all the unsigned draft picks on Detroit's reserve list, it's roughly 80 guys.

But not all of those players will be in camp. NCAA players can't attend without giving up their college eligibility. Prospects already committed to playing the season in Europe typically don't attend because their seasons are already in progress. (Berggren, for example, was drafted in 2018 but his first NHL training camp was 2021.) A few of those guys are even KHL veterans who are only on Detroit's reserve list because there's no NHL-KHL transfer agreement.

So the extra spots in camp get filled up by amateur tryouts (typically undrafted major junior kids who go right back to juniors afterward) and professional tryouts. Those professional tryouts tend to fall into one of two categories:

- Proven NHL vet without a contract for the year, auditioning for an NHL job
- Minor league journeyman auditioning for an AHL-only contract

Hillis is pretty clearly the latter.

Indeed. Last year the Red Wings' training camp roster had almost 70 players.

If you add up all the players under contract with the Red Wings, all the players under contract with the Griffins, and all the unsigned draft picks on Detroit's reserve list, it's roughly 80 guys.

But not all of those players will be in camp. NCAA players can't attend without giving up their college eligibility. Prospects already committed to playing the season in Europe typically don't attend because their seasons are already in progress. (Berggren, for example, was drafted in 2018 but his first NHL training camp was 2021.) A few of those guys are even KHL veterans who are only on Detroit's reserve list because there's no NHL-KHL transfer agreement.

So the extra spots in camp get filled up by amateur tryouts (typically undrafted major junior kids who go right back to juniors afterward) and professional tryouts. Those professional tryouts tend to fall into one of two categories:

- Proven NHL vet without a contract for the year, auditioning for an NHL job
- Minor league journeyman auditioning for an AHL-only contract

Hillis is pretty clearly the latter.
- Sven22

Dead on. What I do like about camp is that the “proposed” lines are in groups where they are getting way more minutes than they might. Like the 3rd line may be the top line in one group, etc. the one thing I didn’t like (i didn’t know better) I was right against the glass and a puck smacked in front of my face. My ears rang like a bell (back in 2009)