Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune is reporting that goalie Ray Emery and center Ryan Martindale have been invited to training camp.
#tblightning announce they are inviting G Ray Emery and C Ryan Martindale to training camp on tryout agreements
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) September 8, 2015
Ray Emery presumably will be given a chance to earn the NHL back-up job while Andrei Vasilevskiy is out for 2-3 months after offseason surgery to remove a bloodclot. Martindale was acquired mid-way through last season to help the Syracuse Crunch and is likely fighting to make a good impression to earn a contract to play there.
Ray Emery is a 32 year old goaltender that will turn 33 before the season starts. He has spent time in the NHL in 11 different seasons mostly as a back-up with Ottawa, Philadelphia, Anaheim, Chicago and again with Philadelphia the past two seasons. He has only broken the 40 games played mark once in 2006-07 with Ottawa when he played 58 games and had a 2.64 GAA and .918 save percentage to go with a 33-16-6 record. Over the past four seasons he has averaged 28.5 games played and for his career has a 145-86-28 record with a .906 save percentage and 2.70 GAA. He is a capable back up, but has been known to get a bit scrappy at times.
Ryan Martindale is still young and will turn 24 near the start of the season. He has yet to make his NHL debut and has only produced at a 0.37 point per game pace over 180 AHL games. However, he did show well with the Crunch producing 8 goals and 6 assists for 14 points in 19 games. With the lack of depth down the middle right now in Syracuse, Martindale should have an opportunity to fight for the third line center spot. A good camp would go a long way towards securing a deal (most likely an AHL contract) with the team.
