And it’s pretty clear Ritchie hasn’t been offered anything.
“For the summer, I want to get a lot stronger and improve all aspects of my game really,” Ritchie said. “And improve my shot, conditioning, skating, all that stuff. And then coming into camp, my goal is to get some preseason games and work as hard as I can and have them make a decision to give me a contract.”
Love the attitude but the decision should have been made long ago.
Sure they’ll sign him, probably in March when his contract won’t need to slide. But if they seriously plan to send him home from camp with no contract and no NHL trial it’s a real bad look. Commitment to a player starts long before they enter playing in the system and it’s not an attitude I’d count on bearing any fruit.