How Professional Tryout Contracts Work in the AHL

Every AHL roster carries a quiet collection of players whose contracts most fans never notice. They fill holes created by injuries, reward hot streaks in the ECHL, and give veterans one last shot at catching an NHL scout's eye. The mechanism behind most of those arrangements is the Professional Tryout Contract, or PTO, and understanding how it works reveals a lot about how professional hockey actually operates below the NHL level.

What a PTO Is

A Professional Tryout Contract is a short-term agreement used extensively in the AHL to give teams roster flexibility while allowing unsigned players an opportunity to showcase their game at that level. Any player who has professional experience and is not currently under an NHL contract is eligible to sign a PTO with the AHL team of their choice.

The baseline length is 25 games. But as one team-focused breakdown puts it: "At face value, a PTO is a contract for 25 games. In reality, a PTO is for as long or short as a team wants it to be." A player can be released at any point, even without appearing in a single game. Teams are under no obligation to carry a player to the end of the 25-game window. If the injured player a PTO signing was covering comes back healthy, or if the tryout player earns a spot on their former league's All-Star roster and needs to return, the contract simply ends.

The 25-Game Structure and Renewals

When a player does play out the full 25 games and the team still wants them around, two paths are available. The player can sign a second PTO, allowing them to remain with the club, or the team can convert them to a Standard Player Contract. It is worth noting that there is a hard ceiling: the maximum is two PTOs per player. If an NHL parent club has taken notice, they may also step in and sign the player to a two-way contract at that point.

The pay structure on a PTO is modest by professional sports standards. Tryout deals pay a per-diem rather than a traditional salary, with no explicit per-game or annual rate publicly disclosed for most arrangements. For context, the financial stakes in the lower minor leagues are already limited: an ECHL season runs roughly 30 weeks, and the average player earns less than $20,000 for the entire season, while a rookie makes at most $16,500. A PTO at the AHL level represents a meaningful step up in exposure, even if the per-diem structure keeps the immediate financial reward modest.

Who Signs PTOs and Why

The most common source of PTO signings is the ECHL. AHL teams regularly pull players from their own affiliated ECHL franchise or from other ECHL clubs to cover players lost to injury or recalled to the NHL. If the team's situation changes and they no longer need that player, the tryout ends and the player returns to their previous club without further obligation.

Training camp is another natural entry point. Players invited to camp without an existing contract who demonstrate they have earned a roster spot are frequently offered a PTO to formalize their status and start the clock on their 25-game audition.

Not every PTO involves a young player grinding through the minors, either. Veterans sometimes use these contracts strategically, keeping their options open while remaining visible to NHL teams scouting the AHL. A PTO allows an experienced player to stay active and in game shape without locking into a longer commitment that might complicate a potential NHL call.

Goaltender Anthony Peters is a useful example of how the pathway can work. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton signed Peters to a tryout contract in the 2017-18 season, pulling him from the Cincinnati Cyclones rather than his listed ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. Peters played out the full 25 games and earned a full AHL contract as a result, making him an illustration of the PTO functioning exactly as intended: a showcase that ends with permanent employment.

The ATO: A Separate but Related Tool

The Amateur Tryout Contract, or ATO, operates on a similar structure but serves a fundamentally different purpose. ATOs are handed out near the end of the season and are specifically designed for players who have not yet turned professional. The key protection they offer is the preservation of amateur status: signing an ATO does not cost a player their eligibility to return to junior hockey, college, or their international league the following season.

Drafted prospects who are still eligible for junior hockey can sign an ATO to get a feel for the professional level and allow their organization to assess where they fit. Hayden Hodgson, for instance, signed an ATO with the Cleveland Monsters at the end of a season when he was nearing the end of his juniors eligibility and looking to make the transition to pro hockey.

The rules around who qualifies are specific. Prospects from junior hockey or Europe can play under an ATO once their own league's season concludes. NCAA players cannot sign an ATO unless they have completely finished their college hockey eligibility, a distinction that protects their amateur standing under NCAA rules.

Defenseman Niclas Almari's stint with Wilkes-Barre is a clean example of the ATO at work. Almari signed his amateur tryout in March 2018, appeared in two regular-season games and one playoff game, and when the AHL season ended, his tryout concluded and he returned to his Finnish club for 2018-19 without any professional contract complications.

AHL teams sometimes refer to late-season ATO players as "Black Aces," prospects who join the roster as depth pieces during the playoff run with the understanding that the arrangement is temporary and educational on both sides.

AHL-Only Standard Player Contracts

Once a PTO or ATO player demonstrates enough value to warrant a longer commitment, the next step is typically an AHL-only Standard Player Contract. This is where the structure diverges meaningfully from NHL-affiliated deals. An AHL SPC is non-transferable to the NHL, meaning the player is the property of their AHL club and cannot be recalled to the NHL parent organization unless they sign a new NHL contract.

These deals are typically for one year unless otherwise specified, and financial details are rarely disclosed publicly. There is no salary cap or ceiling for these players. Because they are signed by the AHL team rather than the NHL affiliate, they do not count against the 50 contracts an NHL organization is permitted to carry at any one time, a structural advantage that makes AHL-only players an efficient roster tool for NHL front offices managing contract space.

Players on AHL-only deals are still permitted to attend NHL training camps on a tryout basis, leaving the door open for a future NHL opportunity. They are also eligible for reassignment down to the ECHL if the AHL team needs to move them. Among the Cleveland Monsters, players such as Miles Koules, Carter Camper, Joe Pendenza, Brad Thiessen, and Brett Gallant have held AHL-only SPCs.

Entry Level Contracts and the Waiver System

The AHL functions partly as a developmental league, which means a significant portion of any roster is made up of players on Entry Level Contracts signed with the NHL parent club. At one snapshot of the Cleveland Monsters' roster, 10 of 24 players were on ELCs with the Columbus Blue Jackets, illustrating just how central these contracts are to day-to-day AHL operations.

An ELC is available to players between 18 and 24 years old signing their first NHL contract. All ELCs are two-way deals, and the maximum NHL salary under an ELC is $925,000 plus performance bonuses. For players who are 18 or 19 when they sign, a "slide" provision applies: if they play 10 or fewer NHL games in their first season, the contract effectively does not start until the following year.

The practical benefit for AHL operations is significant. Because ELC players are waiver-exempt in most cases, teams can move them freely between the NHL and AHL without going through the 24-hour waiver claim process, during which any other NHL team could claim the player's contract. For veterans on full NHL contracts who are being sent to the AHL, waivers are required, and any team in the league has the right to claim them during that window.

The Bigger Picture

PTOs and ATOs rarely make headlines, but they are the connective tissue that keeps AHL rosters functional through a long and unpredictable season. Brady Austin appearing on the Monsters' roster under a PTO, or a graduating junior getting three weeks of AHL experience before returning to Europe, those transactions reflect the constant movement of players trying to find their level and teams trying to stay competitive despite injuries, recalls, and salary constraints. The 25-game window is short enough to limit risk for the organization and meaningful enough to change a player's career trajectory entirely.