With ten days to go before their regular season opener, the Ottawa Senators are already down to some pretty workable numbers at training camp. NHL teams usually go with a roster of 22 or 23 players on opening night, and the Sens are now at 29 after cutting four more players on Monday.
After 20 cuts on Friday, goaltender Leevi Merilainen and defencemen Donovan Sebrango and Filip Roos were assigned to Belleville of the American Hockey League on Monday. But the biggest name in the latest cuts was forward Nikolay Kulemin, who was released from his PTO.
Kulemin was one of those compelling training camp stories that seem to pop up every year. He was trying to make an NHL comeback at age 38, primarily to be closer to his son, who’s playing Triple-A in the Toronto-area this season.
Kulemin has played in the KHL for the past six seasons and used his old Leaf connections (Dave Poulin and Steve Staios) to help set up an audition for a job in Ottawa. Clearly, the Sens decided it wasn’t a fit for them.
Sebrango and Merilainen are tracking to be AHL teammates again in Belleville. Sebrango had a goal and two scraps in two pre-season games this fall. He and Roos didn’t do enough to beat out Tyler Kleven for an opening night job on the left side of the third-line pairing.
By the way, since there are now only three left-shot defencemen remaining on the roster, it looks like we can officially say congratulations to Kleven on making the team.
The right side is more complicated. Nick Jensen is locked in. But after that, things get fuzzy. The Sens have a dinged-up Artem Zub, a kid in Carter Yakemchuk, and then Travis Hamonic, Jacob Bernard-Docker, and Cale Addison, who’s on a PTO.
There are still several names in the mix for the last job or two at forward.
The Senators next pre-season game is set for tomorrow on the road against the Montreal Canadiens.
Related: Ottawa Senators Head Coach Travis Green Cancels Training Camp “Country Club”
Related: Former Ottawa Senators Winger Alex Formenton Reportedly “Moves on From Hockey Career”
Related: Tyler Boucher, Angus Crookshank, Stephen Halliday and Max Guenette Among 20 Ottawa Senator Cuts on Friday
