Three is a crowd, and four is a party. The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that they have signed a fourth player to a professional try out.

Colin White, a primary right winger who can play center in a pinch, joins defenseman Mary Pysyk and Libor Hájek, as well as forward Austin Wagner as players on professional try outs for the Penguins.

Colin White is actually a very intriguing potential addition for Pittsburgh. A former first round pick by the Ottawa Senators in 2017, White’s career path so far follows a similar story to that of offseason free agent signing Andreas Johnsson.

Both players had impressive seasons when they were young, signed big contracts as a result, then couldn’t live up to the bill of their new deals. White, however, has been able to maintain a full-time job in the NHL, unlike Johnsson.

White’s breakthrough season came during the 2018-19 season, where he played 71 games in Ottawa, putting up 41 points.

After that season, White signed a big six year deal that carried a cap hit of $4.75 million. In his first year under the new deal, he tallied just 23 points in 61 games, and the next few seasons wouldn’t see a huge improvement.

He had 18 points in 45 games in 2020-21 and 10 points in 24 games in 2021-22. Last summer, the Senators opted to buy him out of the deal that looked worse and worse by the year.

However, he did find a decent landing spot, being picked up by the Florida Panthers on a one year, $1.2 million dollar deal. White appeared in 68 games for Florida, chipping in 15 points. He had a really hot start with Florida before a dramatic cool off as the season progressed.

He played in every playoff game (21) for Florida during their Stanley Cup Finals run, but he only registered 2 assists in that time.

Unable to secure a contract in the offseason, he now comes to Pittsburgh on a PTO, hoping to pick up a spot on the team’s NHL roster.

White definitely has the skill to be a decent player on the Penguins roster. At his peak, he’s a 40 point scorer, providing some depth offense.

But, he’s not a big goal scorer. In his career year back in 2018-19, he scored 14 goals, which is the highest mark of his NHL career. Over his last two NHL seasons, he has a combined total of 11 goals in 92 games.

It’s unlikely the Penguins use him as a center, should he make the team. His faceoff win rate was just 43% during Florida’s regular season, although oddly enough, he had a 50% rate in the playoffs (in almost an equal amount of opportunities).

The former 21st overall pick will have a lot of players to compete with for a potential job, as the Penguins have some really interesting training camp battles to pay attention to as the 2023-24 season begins to ramp up.

White is just 26 years old, and does have a lot of hockey left in him, and perhaps that can serve as some extra motivation as he pushes for a full contract from the Penguins.

I think he’s a player to keep a particularly close eye on for the next few weeks. Something tells me he could actually be a very useful player for the Penguins, should he make the squad.