Ottawa Senators release 38-year-old forward from PTO after seven-year NHL absence

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Tom Banks
September 30, 2024 (9:51 PM)

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The Ottawa Senators made the shock move to bring in Nikolay Kulemin for a PTO after a six-year NHL absence, and now they've officially parted ways.

This off-season has been filled with many intriguing storylines in the NHL, and the one that perhaps didn't get the attention it deserved was the attempted return to the NHL of 38-year old Nikolay Kulemin.

Drafted back in the second-round of the 2006 NHL Draft, Kulemin played in 669 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders, scoring 121 goals and 274 points before departing the NHL in 2018, where he has since been playing in the KHL for two different teams over the past six years.

Then, the Senators gave him a lifeline and signed him to a professional tryout this summer on the back of 25 points in 46 games last year in the KHL, but now, the team have officially parted ways with him, releasing him from his PTO.

In two games with Ottawa in the pre-season, Kulemin tallied just one assist but was fairly solid all over the ice, but at his age after spending the last six seasons away from the NHL, it's tough to see where his career goes from here. We've seen many younger names depart the league for the KHL this season, so if Kulemin wants to continue his hockey career, it's likely that he'll find another spot there, but unless a team wants him for a depth role in the AHL, it appears that this may officially be the end of the line for the Russian forward.