Hockey contracts

The following are the types of hockey contracts that players may be signed to when they play professional ice hockey.

A two-way contract is a professional sports contract which stipulates that an athlete’s salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play.

A one-way contract means that the player is paid the same amount of money regardless of whether he plays in the NHL or the AHL.

This is what a player signs to lay out the terms of their playing status and salary. This is not transferable to the NHL and would require the player to sign a new contract with the NHL team.

A Professional tryout (PTO) is found in the AHL and NHL. In the AHL, this type of contract is limited to 25 games. Teams may sign players to multiple PTOs at any time during the season, provided that after the completion of the PTO the player shall have the right to sign a regular AHL contract or PTO with another AHL team.

During the National Hockey League (NHL) preseason, veteran players who tryout for a team sign a PTO.

An Amateur tryout (ATO) is found in the NHL, the AHL, and the ECHL. This type of contract is for players who are leaving college and attempting to turn professional, are done with college, or are graduating from the junior leagues. An ATO is a very common practice near the end of the professional seasons as they go deeper into the year than college or junior schedules. In the NHL, an ATO may only be used for 1 day for emergency with no pay or compensation for skaters in accordance with Exhibit 17 of the NHL-NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). ATOs in the NHL are typically only used for goalies since, in practice, teams always retain more than the needed eighteen skaters on their NHL rosters, making it highly likely that any skater who becomes unavailable for a game on short notice can be replaced by another player who otherwise would have been a "healthy scratch".

For goalies and skaters the ATO may only be used according to the NHL-NHLPA CBA section 13-13(m)(ii), when Emergency conditions shall be established when the playing strength of the Loaning Club, by reason of incapacitating injury or illness or by League suspension to its Players is reduced below the level of two (2) goalkeepers, six (6) defensemen and twelve (12) forwards. Proof of the existence of the emergency conditions including the incapacity shall be furnished to the Commissioner of the League upon request made by him.

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