Former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nikolay Kulemin will be trying to make his return to the NHL with the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators announced on social media that the team has signed Kulemin along with defenseman Calen Addison to a professional tryout. By signing a PTO, the players will get an invite to training camp with hopes of earning a contract and a roster spot.
Kulemin has spent the last six seasons in the KHL in Russia after spending 10 years in the NHL. The Russian forward was selected 44th overall in the 2006 NHL draft by the Maple Leafs.
Kulemin made his NHL debut in the 2008-09 season and spent six seasons in Toronto. After his six years with the Maple Leafs, he signed a four-year deal with the New York Islanders.
Following Kulemin’s four years with the Islanders, he went back home and signed in Russia. In the NHL, Kulemin has skated in 669 games recording 121 goals and 153 assists for 174 points.
Kulemin played in 421 games with the Maple Leafs recording 84 goals and 111 assists for 195 points.
The other player the Senators signed to a PTO was Addison who is a 24-year-old defenseman. Addison has skated in 152 games recording 6 goals and 44 assists for 50 points. He’s played for the Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks.
Senators GM Has High Expectations for Team
Ottawa hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2016-17 season, but Senators general manager Steve Staios believes that will change.
In the offseason, Ottawa went out and traded for star goalie Linus Ullmark from the Boston Bruins. The team also signed veteran forwards David Perron and Michael Amadio, which is why Staios thinks the team will be competitive next season.
“My expectation is we will be a hugely competitive team day in, day out. I have belief there is huge internal growth,” Staios said.
Earlier in the summer, Staios spoke to the media and said he was happy with everything he accomplished in the offseason.
“Our core group of players and their age and their experience, wrapping them around the players that we’ve brought in, I think, is hopefully going to take them to the next level. I think we’ve got depth. We have experience. We’re hopefully looking to take the next step with this group,” Staois said.
The Senators open their 2024-25 NHL season at home on October 10 against the Florida Panthers.
Maple Leafs GM Not Ruling Out More Moves
Toronto has been quiet this offseason, except for the signings of Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Anthony Stolarez which happened on July 1.
However, with training camps still not open, Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving isn’t ruling out the team making another move.
“To me, we’ve still got five weeks or so till camp. And, you know, we’re not set yet. We continue to look at ways to make our team better,” Treliving said on OverDrive on TSN 1050. “I said at the end of the year we’re going to look at everything. Sometimes people fall in love with ‘ ‘let’s make a big change just to make a big change’. At the end of the day, you can go out and make big changes. If they’re not making your team better, to me it doesn’t make any sense to just make a change just to stand up and say ‘look at it, we made this big change.'”
The Maple Leafs have just over $1.2 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia
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Former Maple Leafs Winger Inks PTO With Division Rival