In due time, the New Jersey Devils will be exploring veteran players worth adding in training camp on professional tryout offers. On experience and pedigree alone, Max Pacioretty is one of the players who should be at the top of their list.
Pacioretty, 36, is not the same player he once was. The former Montreal Canadiens captain is nearly 1,000 regular-season games deep into his NHL career, and his health has suffered for it in recent years.
Pacioretty hasn't played more than 48 games in a season since 2019-20, when he scored 32 goals, 34 assists, and 66 points in 71 games with the Vegas Golden Knights--the best production of his career (in a full-ish season) on a per-game basis.
The 36-year-old scored three times in five games for the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022-23 before suffering a season-ending Achilles injury, and he's scored just nine goals in 84 games between the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs since then.
And, Pacioretty is still a six-time 30-goal scorer at the end of the day. But it's easy to see why teams aren't lining up to secure his services at this point.
The Devils, though? They're in a precarious position when it comes to the salary cap, with $6.13 million remaining to secure franchise defenseman Luke Hughes to a long-term deal.
Buying low has been the name of the game for them this summer. The Devils signed Evgenii Dadonov for just $1 million (plus bonuses), while Cody Glass and Connor Brown are making a combined $5.5 million against the cap.
Signing a player like Pacioretty to a PTO seems like an ideal situation for the Devils, who still need production and experience in the middle-six if they can find it.
At his age, it's unlikely Pacioretty commands a big role on what would be his fifth different team in five seasons, and there's little risk to such an agreement. He either still has some juice and earns a low-cost one-year deal, or he doesn't have anything left to give and is cut loose at some point in the preseason.
Pacioretty did score five goals, eight assists, and 13 points in 37 games with the Maple Leafs last season, which would amount to a respectable 29 points over a full 82-game season relative to his potential role with the Devils.
When it comes to goals above replacement, the 6-foot-2 veteran winger was down to 11.4% amongst all players with 100 minutes played last season, according to Evolving-Hockey's model, but that's still an upgrade over Ondrej Palat (10.6%).
And, again, that's at, likely, a league-minimum price.
At this stage in the game, the Devils could do worse than take a flier on Pacioretty. But the onus is on the player to prove he can still play after some injury-marred seasons accentuated by uncharacteristically poor finishing in front of the net.