Ottawa Senators Announce PTO Signings: Calen Addison & Nikolay Kulemin | Immediate Reaction

on today's show it's a bonus locked on send after a pair of professional tryy out offers were announced we'll get into what Nikolai kulan and kayin Addison can bring to Camp that and more on today's locked on send I'm Jake Sanderson I'm Tim schler and you're listening to the locked on Senator podcast you're locked on Senators your daily podcast on the Ottawa Senators part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome you are locked on to the Ottawa Senators your daily podcast on the Ottawa Senators I'm Ross Levitan on the outskirts of enemy territory alone for now because Brandon piller's on his way to Calgary he has no idea that kulman and kayin Addison are now members of upcoming training camp which gets underway September 19th will be the first day of on Ice sessions however the SS are teasing us with photos that the captain's practices are underway at the CTC photos of Josh Norris Tim stla Thomas Shabad and Jake Sanderson going up today still waiting on lenus olar's new equipment that's going to be a great day as a hash goalie friendly show speaking of goalies we actually have Seth tupal from lockon Wild later on we'll get into kayn Addison he was a prospect once a top prospect for the Wild what was the deal with him why didn't he pan out and does Seth think that there is an NHL Talent still there in kayin Addison we'll get to that a little bit later in the show Nikolai kouman though that has to steal the headlines come on a former 30 goal scorer for the Toronto Maple Leafs back in what 2010 he played for the lease from 2008 and then left the NHL in 2018 when he p a few years with the New York Islanders after his time in Toronto where by the way when he scored 30 goals who was his Winger Clark MacArthur could this be another s's Redemption Arc where they did it with Deon fuff and Clark MacArthur could no Gregor and Kay and um rather Nikolai kouman be the second coming of that I wouldn't uh bet on it per se but it is a funny thought to have because Nikolai kulan was once considered a pretty solid two-way player in the National Hockey League but at 38 years old I don't think we have to spend too much time on if he's going to make the NHL roster I think this is an extra body in training camp he's got familiarity with members of the staff we know Dave pan was in Toronto the entirety of kulan's time there as well as Steve stos albe it in a Player Development role more so Dave pin I think this has kind of his fingerprints all over it we also know that kulan was training this summer at Maddie Nichols gym page six systems I believe it's called on Instagram and there were photos tagged of kouman training out there so he's gonna come into Camp prepared is it really a favor I guess so to get him out on the ice senator's first preseason game by the way is in Toronto on September 22nd so I assume that's a cool moment that could be circled on kulan's calendar but it just feels strange that a guy who's been in the KHL for six seasons is going to get a look at an NHL camp at age 38 he had 25 points and 46 games last year with salivette ULEV yufa let's go with yufa that's a nice way to put I'll leave that in there though as uh it's a little different solo we missed py here on the show but he'll be back tomorrow we've got a Ring of Honor already recorded and then on Monday we actually recorded a show talking about all the players that have moved on almost an unofficial start to the locked on send season previews which will be coming throughout the next month as we inch towards October 10th I'm trying to keep the time flying by with some nice videos on Twitter we're posting one a day just nostalgic moments and I've got five more in the hopper already set for the next five days so make sure you're following there you can also find us everywhere you get podcasts we are free and available on YouTube kayn Addison's more interesting right like I think we've covered kouman okay it's funny we had all all had to Google where was he playing haven't heard that name in quite some time but with Kaylin Addison we saw him quarterbacking a top power play in the NHL this past season I had to pause after top power play I should say top power play unit in San Jose who we know really struggled last year to score goals and have any sort of semblance of a top power play unit so kayin Addis had plenty of opportunity with San Jose wasn't brought back in 60 games last year in San Jose 12 points one goal and a minus 35 now plus minus we'll get into a Seth it's not everything at all but it is kind of a bit eye openening when you're that low in considerable years like the year before his last full season in Minnesota he was a minus 17 worst on the team by two so it seems like he's very offensive minded but struggles in his own Zone he's also under sized 5'11 under 180 pounds or around that will say I'm getting Eric bran fromom Vibe so py not being here might be a blessing but we'll see what happens with kayin Addison I should mention that episode on Monday obviously has been recorded with py yesterday so you're not going to get wow kolum and Addison where do they fit we omit them of course now I don't think either of these guys gonna make the NHL team to me this is to push Jacob Bernard docker and to a lesser extent Travis hammeck as a right shot defenseman we're not sold on you as an organization right prove to us that you can carry the mail that's kind of the message I think that you're sending because kayn Addison I believe is one year if not the same age as Jacob Bernard Docker both 2018 picks Addison went in the second round 53rd overall had an exceptional Junior career with the Left Bridge hurricanes for the most part where he was almost a point per game through three seasons there you might remember him from that 2020 Team Canada World Juniors gold medal team that wild game with Russia in the finals klin Addison had nine points at that World Juniors felt like this guy was the limit he was one of those guys making a name for himself in the prospect world but just hasn't really panned out at the NHL level and he's losing opportunities now with his third NHL jersey he'll be putting on with the Ottawa Senators so it'll be really interesting to see how kayn Addison fits at training camp and we'll see if the Senators even have a tough decision to make with him 24 years old I might have already mentioned that so he's in that place where if he wants to make himself an everyday NHL Now's the Time and for kouman could be a fun Redemption story but I'm not setting my clock to him making the Senators opening night roster that's the news today and there could be more news tomorrow with a senator's Prospect Gabriel Eliason a lot of thoughts about where he could end up this upcoming season Nothing is for certain but yesterday speaking to the media Cedar Rapids USHL coach said he's not coming there so that takes that option off the table he was the second overall pick in the USHL draft and that was before the NHL draft so you got to think the Senators might have something to do with Elias taking a different path forward as of now he's still committed to the University of Michigan for the fall of 2025 but there's still lots of time between now and then if he does go to the Ontario Hockey League he loses all eligibility for playing at Michigan so it is a big decision that's what I'll say it's a big decision for a big man 68 still 17 years old until Monday Gabriel Eliason if you want to learn more about him he was on the podcast earlier this summer after being taken in the second round of the 2024 NHL draft all right that's our bonus locked on send please vote tomorrow on Twitter at send cental for the Ring of Honor draft the biggest wha ifs in senator's history for now I'm going to throw it over to my conversation with Seth tupal to di dive deeper into kayin Addison and of course I had to ask him about Philip gipson after a roller coaster Jacquelyn Hyde first two years after that offseason trade with the Senators for cam talbat that's coming up next you're listening to a bonus locked on Senators your team every day today's episode's brought to you by game time if you need last minute tickets at the lowest prices you need game time because game time has the lowest price guarantee if you find the same tickets in the same section for Less you'll get credit at 110% of the difference game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets game time is your spot for tickets for sports Theater comedy music and more just go check them out and now game time picks is here and that makes getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even easier you can filter through the fluff and only show incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste anytime searching for thousands of tickets get to game time now and game time also has panoramic views from your seats I love knowing where I'm going to be when I walk in to the CTC take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time down the game time app create an account and because you're a listener of locked on sends you get $20 off your first purchase locked on NHL that's l o c k e d o n NHL for $20 off terms apply again create an account and redeem the code locked on NHL $20 off download game time today what time is it it's game time for a deeper look at kayin Addison we go to locked on wild host Seth to Pal Seth good friend of the show great to see you how are you doing today man Ross it is good to be back on the locked on Senators Airwaves it's been far too long and uh it's funny how this works the moment I saw that um our main subject matter was going on today just uh popped a tweet to lockdown send and said sup boys how uh how we doing today two minutes later we're on the air here we are that's how we do it here breaking news locked on I know look it's pto's we don't even know if kayn Addison or you just heard me talking about Nikolai kulman are going to make the sense but it is good to know what's coming to camp and this is a player with plenty of NHL experience finished last season with the San Jose Sharks but was in the Minnesota Wild Organization for three and a half Seasons so what's the fan thoughts in Minnesota how's how's kayin Addison perceived you know it's interesting because Addison came in and really hit the ground running um from a points perspective because he had so much success uh quarterbacking the uh the power play the Minnesota Wild power play uh in his rookie season he came close to setting the franchise record for rookie points uh but there always was this circle back to the other side of the game because there were some times to be honest at which he just was really not great defensively and so it's always that half of the glass he was really good offensively and he just seemed to have knack for being able to set things up and really to uh to help push play which is something that at that point the Minnesota Wilds uh Decor really needed but just didn't really give you much of anything on the defensive side and it led to many games in which you're talking about a player recording like a minus three or a minus four and I I know plus minus isn't the best indicator of performance but at the end of the day being on the ice and responsible for a lot of goals for opponents is something that a coaching staff is going to get you to try to improve and so this happened a little bit before he ended up eventually getting traded to San Jose uh the coaching staff in end ofe meetings with Addison asked him to you know go go talk to Jared Spurgeon Minnesota Wilds Captain who's a pretty darn good defense himself he's not the um he's not the tallest of defensemen either so the thought was that it would be a good player to talk to about what he needs to do to kind of improve the defensive side of his game and lo and behold later Jared Spurgeon was asked about that and he said no he uh he never he never came to me for any sort of advice and like that's your captain like that's the captain of your team and somebody who is supposed to be able to help those young players help them develop help them figure out how to cut it as an NHL defenseman and so that I think was a frustrating point for the Minnesota Wild coaching staff was like you know all you got to do is go we just want you to kind of go to him for advice to uh to try to figure out this other side of the game and never ended up doing that and so when you have a guy who really only asset is being able to help on the power play uh Bill Garen had a notable quote right around the time that uh that the Wilds were looking at trying to resign Ryan Reeves he said you just you can't have Specialists on the roster and that's basically what kin ended up being uh he played I believe it was one game as an actual forward when the wild were um short on bodies near the uh the end of his tenure he played one game there but barely played didn't factor into anything really at all and so it just comes down to something that I think a lot of young players have to figure out is how to become more than just like a one trick pony figure out ways to impact other facets of the game and you know he wasn't factoring in on the penalty kill at all as a small defenseman he did tend to kind of get moved around by bigger bodies you got to find other ways to uh to impact the game and so he goes to San Jose there was a pretty pretty good outcry uh about that trade that the Wilds gave up on him too quickly uh he he was okay with San Jose but some of those defensive metrics were the same and so it just it just came down to I think not being able to really add more tools to the tool shf and just like like Bill Garen said you just you can't be a specialist these days on NHL rosters and Addison was provided the opportunity of being that power play one quarterback I reached out to JD young who you host the locked on NHL Tuesday Western Conference show he's also the host of locked on sharks where Addison finished the year and his quote was saying me he was fine says he was given that role I mentioned but not sure where he fits on the sends could be a nice AHL addition all offense little defense is Seth just said but the offense just isn't good enough to have that missing piece on the other end when you bring up that Spurgeon story I look at it at plus minus you mentioned not the greatest of indicators but when you're egregiously below everyone else on your team or you look at it game by game there's a lot where you're out there consistently minus three minus four well the year you mentioned kayn Addison was a team worse minus 17 next worse was minus 9 so that's a pretty big gap Jared Spurgeon was plus 32 on the same team so this isn't a San Jose situation where we can look at that minus 38 last year for kayin Addison and maybe have some questions about who he's on the ice with the situations that he was in but you're saying it's a longer term issue and when you're 5 foot 11 173 pounds like he's listed you have to be elite if you're G to just be an offensive player so in a perfect world though if he's going to play on a team you'd probably pair him with a more physical physical tough defenseman and right now it looks like Tyler cev's going to be that on the third pair for the Ottawa Senators we got to see him live he was in the line up when s were in Minnesota last April but what's your thought process is this a guy that from what you've seen of him over an extended period of time that he cut can cut in a a top six role at the NHL level I tends to lean towards no and hearing some of JD's thoughts and having pretty much the same things echoed that happened in min SAA uh leads me to a guy who you know maybe isn't I don't want to say not willing to but not able to make the necessary changes to uh to be able to cut it as a regular NHL defenseman because look there are plenty of defenseman in the NHL that are not great defensively but the things that you absolutely can't do is just get lost in front of the net and we saw plenty of that where you'd see offensive players uh making plays and you see one wild defenseman or two wild defenseman just kind of standing around and you're like who was that like just go go try to make a play like I'll never dog somebody if they go try to make a play and it doesn't work out because you know you're trying to make a play you're trying to make something happen and it either works or it doesn't but saw a lot of instances in which you see like a two-on-one and somebody in front of the net just does not do anything and that allows both forwards to just set up shop and do their thing and so in a perfect world I would say if you had a really really solid defensive defenseman to be able to handle basically all the um all the responsibilities of that pairing maybe it could work but at the end of the day he's probably more like an AHL depth guy or honestly I don't know if if this doesn't pan out if maybe he just plays overseas or plays in Canada or something like that but my uh my guess is that the days of being in NHL regular uh probably are uh long gone plays in Canada what you think he's gonna play beer league something I I I I'm really intrigued to see how this turns out but if um if things don't really change doesn't seem likely to uh to turn into anything new well at 24 years old I'm sure he's feeling the are now changing organizations for a third time albe at a PTO but he's going to wear his third NHL jersey in the last two years so you're starting to run out of chances and it's interesting to see because Ottawa could use that offensive minded third pair defenseman in a depth R A lot of people wanted Kevin shattenkirk on a PTO or Justin Schultz those types of players were still available they opt with a younger player than that less NHL experience albe it the seasons in Minnesota and last year 60 games with San Jose but it'll be interesting to see what happens with kayin Addison when we get to Camp can't chat with Seth dupal host of locked on wild without talking a little hashtag sends abroad couple summers ago we had the cam talet for Philip gipson trade as Bob McKenzie once famously said the trade was one for one cam Talbot's long moved on Philly franchise as we affectionately know him as had almost a Jackel and hide two seasons where he was Elite getting vzna votes two years ago and then a below 900 save percentage last season where's the fan face at with Philip Guston and what are your expectations for him next season you know it's interesting there have been early on in the offseason there were a lot of trade rumors because Mark Andre flurry re-up with the Wild and the wild also have yper Volstead down in Iowa that he continues to look like somebody that is probably deserving of some regular time at the NHL level so with three goalies what do you do and so there were a lot of well trade Philip gustofson because he's one of the only pieces on this roster that doesn't have trade protection but my longstanding belief has been I would rather have Philip gustofson with this team next year with yesper to help kind of lead him along in the final year of his deal than to trade Gus to have flurry and and Volstead for this season have flurry retire and then yesper is the only thing that you have in the goalie room after this coming season I feel like that's probably a short-sighted move by this organization to make just for the sake of getting some of that Mentor time if you really want that to be the case bring flurry back as a as an like a advisor or something next season to where he can be in that goalie room every day and can talk those guys through it for Gus I feel like his season really torpedoed thanks to two pretty brutal months of the season he had some really great stretches and so for him I think it comes down to just trying to get back on top after the the league got a little bit of a book on him you know that that season in which he was like a top five for the vzna despite not being an actual finalist um he he the the league didn't have a ton of film on him and so he was able to do his thing in the league was trying to kind of feel out what was the best way to attack him this past season they had all the film and they were able to uh to pick a couple of different areas that led to a lot of goals against and so for him it just comes down to kind of figuring out those weak spots and trying to Shore that up I think he's still is a you know an above average type goalie he may not be what he was two years ago but I don't think he's as bad as he was this past year and goalies are goalies are weird man like it it's highly volatile uh especially in this age of all the scoring that we see at the NHL level like you can have a really good goalie one year that just can't figure it out the next and so I air on the side of patience with a guy who is I think 26 um you know and this is this is going to be his uh third full season of NHL play like it uh it takes a while to figure it out sometimes and you got to just roll with the waves and most importantly not make decision that set you back because you bail on a guy too early well said Seth always appreciate your Insight for more from Seth tupal you can go listen to Locked on wild you can find it everywhere you get Podcast and as I mentioned every Tuesday the Western Conference edition of lock on NHL Seth already looking at the calendar it's going to be a post Christmas Meetup the sends in Wild in Minnesota on December 29th we'll chat with you right before if not sooner always appreciate your Insight thank you Ross as always I enjoy it and uh yeah let's uh let's line up across over here before the uh the season gets going hope you enjoyed that chat with Seth such a good guy hope you do go like subscribe and check out lockon wild for more final thoughts for me just really excited for the Ottawa Senator season to get back we know that the practice for the rookie starts on Tuesday so Tuesday py and I will have everything you need to know what's going on with rookie camp this year but make sure to check out the Ring of Honor tomorrow on Friday and then on Monday we're going to do kind of a roster reset we made the depth charts you can kind of get a glimpse of what Steve stos has done to manipulate this roster this season thanks for watching so much we really appreciate you following on Twitter at sens Central subscribing on locked on send we got a really nice festar review the other day on Apple that really does help the algorithm and helps us and you can also support us by supporting all the great sponsors that help the show so have a great rest your day we'll have a Ring of Honor for you tomorrow I'm Ross Levitan and this has been another edition of the locked on Senators podcast your team every day