To be fair, in a typical season that doesn't have a 36 player roster limit for camp and has an actual pre-season with exhibition games where you need to dress a certain number of guys that have NHL experience, a player of Abdelkader's ilk would probably pretty easily get a PTO. Either with an actual chance to compete for a roster spot or just for insurance to make sure they meet the preseason veteran rules when they split the squad for the road PS games.
And no, that's not an endorsement for Abdelkader's ability to continue to play in the NHL, just saying he has the requisite credentials to get a PTO in a normal season.
I mean Abdelkader is probably as much done as guys like Booth and Stewart and much less so than Darling, when all of them got PTO's -mostly because of who they knew in the organization or something like that.
That's actually the scenario I see playing out. My guess is he prefers to go somewhere else, hence "the right fit", but once he realizes the demand is just not there he will go wherever he gets an offer which IMO will be Edmonton. Again, I'm talking taxi squad here, Im not calling him a top 9 or top 12 guy.
I'm betting the start of the AHL season next month is when we'll see some of the vets that are still floating as UFA's get some consideration. There might be some teams that have reservations about keeping young guys/prospects or their AAAA vets on the taxi squad to mostly just practice with the big club rather than get valuable game time or play an important role on the AHL club. In that case, Abdelkader might make more sense. Checks a box for the TS requirement without keeping a young guy from games or a key guy from making the AHL squad competitive. If for some reason you're forced to summon him from the TS and play Abdelkader, give him 4-5 sheltered 4th line minutes until you can call up someone better. Otherwise he's just practicing with the team and maybe telling the boys stories about something uplifting Nick Lidstrom did back in the 2008 Finals.
