Morning Flurries: It’s PTO season

As the final weeks of summer slip by it’s now time for all unsigned players to find a home for the upcoming season and for teams to fill out the remainder of their training camp rosters, which is often in the form of the ever popular Professional Tryout Contract.

• Cap Friendly unearthed the Colorado Avalanche PTO signing of center Peter Holland, a former 2009 first round draft pick of the Anahiem Ducks. Holland hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2017-18 season and sat out all of 2022-23 contemplating retirement. Now it appears he’s giving hockey one more shot and we’ll see what he has left in the tank cone training camp.

• Valeri Nichushkin has been pretty active on Inatagram indicating his whereabouts (mainly Russia) this summer but for his first public appearance in his hometown of Chelyabinsk he donated a sum of a little over three million rubles to the Traktor Hockey Academy. Follow the thread for more photos and video.

• We are into the top ten of our annual Top 25 Under 25 with the top goaltender on the list in Justus Annunen. Have you been following along? Who will be profiled next?

• It’s nonsense to rate Bowen Byram as a prospect at this point but for some reason The Athletic wanted to include all of the 2019 draft class. Still, the Avalanche pool ranks 25th with seven players listed including the aforementioned Byram.

• A touching tribute and as always a great piece in The Players Tribune as Kevin Hayes remembers his brother Jimmy on the second anniversary of his passing.