Edmonton Oilers Sign Five Players to PTO Contracts

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The Edmonton Oilers have signed five players to professional tryout (PTO) contracts, the team announced on Monday.

The PTOs signed by forwards Scott Allen, Josh Currie, Ryan Hamilton, Ryan Vesce and defenseman Frankie Simonelli, bring the total number of players attending Oilers training camp to 62. This includes 36 forwards, 19 defensemen and seven goaltenders.

Oilers head coach Todd McLellan will see a lot of new faces at Oilers training camp. (Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports)
Oilers head coach Todd McLellan will see a lot of new faces at Oilers training camp. (Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports)

Allen, 26, is an Edmonton native and played the 2015-16 season with the Norfolk Admirals of the ECHL where he skated in 37 games and registered 13 goals and 17 assists. The 6’3″, 198-pound left winger played four years of college hockey at the University of Alaska-Anchorage before turning pro in 2014-15 with the ECHL’s Colorado Eagles.

Currie, 23, split the 2015-16 season between the Admirals and the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors and scored a combined 36 points in 66 games. The 5’11”, 187-pound right winger spent four year with the QMJHL’s Prince Edward Island Rocket. In the 2012-13 season with the Rocket, Currie tallied 49 goals and 104 points in 68 games.

Hamilton, 31, has played in a combined 18 games over the course of the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons with the Oilers, registering two points and six penalty minutes. Before his time with the Oilers, Hamilton skated in 12 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and tallied three points. In 2015-16, the 6’2″, 219-pound left winger compiled 33 points in 60 games with the Condors.

Vesce, 34, has spent the past three seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League with Zagreb Medvescak and Minsk Dynamo and has tallied 112 points in 150 games. Vesce has played in 19 NHL games with the San Jose Sharks and three goals and two assists. The 5’7″, 168-pound center played four years of college hockey at Cornell University before beginning his professional career in 2004-05.

Simonelli, 23, skated with the AHL’s Providence Bruins the past two seasons and has scored 11 points and 32 penalty minutes in 57 games. The 5’11”, 201-pound defenseman is a native of Illinois and played four years of college hockey at the University of Wisconsin from 2010-2014.

The Oilers open training camp on Thursday.