Sitting approximately $1.1 million below the salary cap ceiling threshold with some obvious positions of weakness the organization could look to address, it felt like only a matter of time before the Ottawa Senators’ front office negotiated some professional tryouts (PTO).
This management staff has widely been heralded for its patience and diligence, so it made sense for the group to wait things out and provide several opportunities to players the organization should be uncomfortable giving guaranteed contracts to.
But…Nikolai Kulemin?
Once upon a time, Kulemin was an effective two-way forward who had a 30-goal campaign under his belt. The Russian winger has not played in the NHL since the 2017-18 season when he played 13 games with the New York Islanders. To put that into perspective, the 2017-18 season was a time when Eric Burgdoerfer was the Senators’ best German player and Marian Gaborik was playing out the string of his NHL career.
It has been a minute.
The 38-year-old Kulemin has spent the last six years playing in the KHL between Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa. In 46 games last season, Kulemin recorded 13 goals and 25 points.
There are several hypotheses as to why the Senators would make this move. There is speculation that Kulemin’s son will be playing hockey in Ontario this season, so he is exploring opportunities to play close to him. Another posits that the move could simply be senior vice-president of hockey operations Dave Poulin doing a former player of his a favour.
After signing Nick Cousins, the Senators have plenty of left-shot options on the parent roster. Projecting forward for Belleville, they have several left-shot options of their own in Angus Crookshank and Zack Ostapchuk. So the Sens may be allowing him to showcase to other organizations where better opportunities may be available.
The second PTO that the Senators signed is slightly more intriguing. In bringing Calen Addison to camp, the organization brought in someone who could legitimately challenge Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic for a spot.
Admittedly, the bar for that third-pair right defenceman spot is so low that a replacement level defenceman could potentially represent an upgrade.
Addison’s best season was his 2022-23 campaign, when he tallied three goals and 29 points in 62 games. On the surface, the point production is intriguing for a depth defenceman. A deeper look underneath the hood reveals that the Minnesota Wild shot an outlandishly unsustainable 12.86 percent while Addison was on the ice at five-on-five.
The defenceman also benefited from spending that season partnered with Jon Merrill – an underrated defensive defenceman who has posted strong defensive impact metrics throughout his career per Hockeyviz.
Addison spent last season with the lowly San Jose Sharks, where he was often paired with the maligned Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Clearly, anyone playing on the worst team in hockey with a past-his-prime 37-year-old defensive partner is destined for poor on-ice results. So, with that in mind, it is hard to glean too much information from a year in which Addison tied for being the 14th least-valuable skater in the league (-1.3 WAR) per Evolving-Hockey.
As reasonable as it is to believe that Addison benefited from good fortune in 2022-23, it stands to reason that he is not as bad as his performance was last season either. His true value lies somewhere in between. Rolling the dice on a player with pedigree (second-round pick, 2018 by Pittsburgh) who is still relatively young without any strings attached is a safe bet.
Addison also offers a different skill set than Bernard-Docker and Hamonic. Listed at 5’11” and 180 lbs, he is more known for his puck-moving abilities than any traditional defensive traits. At that size, he is actually lighter than former Senators defenceman Erik Brannstrom’s listed 183 lb weight.
Brannstrom, of course, did not receive a qualifying offer after earning $2.2 million last season. It is unknown if the organization wanted to turn the page on Brannstrom because of the money or his size deficiency. Perhaps there was an opportunity for Brannstrom to return on a cheaper deal, but if he was allowed to play his off-side, he certainly represented an upgrade on the alternatives.
So, it will be interesting to see how much of an opportunity will be afforded to players like Addison or even Max Guenette.
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