Anton Stralman accepts PTO with Boston

Sep 23, 2022 - 10:01 PM

Rumors have been swirling that veteran defender Anton Stralman has been mulling over whether or not to take a PTO since the beginning of this week, as Ty Anderson of 98.5 had reported earlier in the week.

Today, it seems as though Stralman has made his decision, and is indeed going to take a chance and see where a PTO goes in 2022.

Stralman has played for a number of teams over his career, including the Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets, most notably with the Rangers and Lightning, and then settled into depth roles with the Panthers and Coyotes, where he’d be coming in from today.

Stralman previously was a defensive powerhouse, but has mostly settled in towards being a smooth-skating depth defender who can put up a semi-respectable amount of assists and a smattering of goals in the twilight of his NHL career. He’s definitely a far cry from the absolute monster he used to be, but if Montgomery can deploy him intelligently, there’s real upside still to be mined from the 36-year old.

He’s still going to have to compete hard, as any arrangement made on defense by the B’s this preseason is going to be temporary at best as players come back in from the IR list.

We wish Anton Stralman good luck as he plays for Black and Gold this preseason!