David Booth is in the process of closing up his home in Florida today, which wasn’t the plan at all. The plan was to stay, to take advantage of a professional tryout (PTO) offered by Florida Panthers GM Dale Tallon and continue the NHL career that has now extended more than 500 games.

Three preseason games in and he was just starting to get his timing down. Then it ended, quickly. Booth was cut loose by the Panthers on Wednesday, and the timing that was starting to return to his game slips away with each day that passes.

“It is strange,” Booth said during a Thursday afternoon phone conversation. “It’s been a tough time, you don’t get a deal, you get a tryout. I can understand where people would get down, when this is all they know and it’s been taken away. I don’t think I’m at a point yet where it’s been taken away.”

This week has just been the latest strange experience in an offseason full of them for Booth and other veterans trying to find NHL jobs in a market that has dried up.