DALLAS — All summer, Ray Emery sat around and waited for that call.
The one that determines the next step in a playing career, assuming there is a next step.
Nothing is guaranteed for a pro athlete. Tomorrow is not promised. And next season might never come.
Even for an established player such as Emery, who is far from being too old at 32.
Even for a goaltender who has carried a team to a Stanley Cup Final, as he did with Ottawa in 2007.
Yet that call for this season did not come for Emery until early September.