Forward Dadonov inks three-year deal
In some respects, Nick Paul says time has flown by since he was traded to the Ottawa Senators in a package deal for Jason Spezza on Canada Day in 2014.
In other ways, it has been a long, arduous journey en route to finally receiving the first guaranteed NHL contract of his career on Wednesday. Consider that when Paul played his first game in a Senators' uniform, an exhibition tilt in St. John's, N.L., two months after the trade, Paul MacLean was the club's head coach. Later that season, Paul played alongside Connor McDavid on the top line for Canada's gold medal-winning world junior squad.
Now, six years and three Senators head coaches later, Paul has finally secured one of the goals he had so long ago. He avoided arbitration by agreeing to the two-year, $2.7-million contract.
After battling confidence issues, clearing waivers three times and being on a seemingly endless yoyo ride between the NHL and the American Hockey League, Paul, 25, says there has been a long learning curve on the way to reaching this point.
“My goals have always been the same, it's just about how I planned to get there,” Paul said in a Zoom call with Ottawa media members Thursday. “It was about switching the mindset and a lot of selftalk and just little things that I've learned to add to my game to get me to the point where I am now.”
When you're 19 and you've been traded for a franchise icon, it's hard to look at a long-term big picture.
“If you asked me after that game in St. John's, it would be a completely different mindset,” he said. “The biggest thing was just changing how I viewed getting called up (to the NHL) and being sent down and what I needed to do.”
Paul worked his way into becoming a first-line player with the Belleville Senators in 2018-19, scoring 16 goals and 23 assists in 43 games, but didn't crack the big-league lineup following training camp last season. With plenty of help from Belleville coach Troy Mann, Paul realized his ticket to the NHL was about finding a way to carve out a depth role.
After finally finding his foothold with the Senators last season, he scored nine goals and 11 assists in 56 games.
“I've hit this goal and now it's on to the next goal,” he said. “I'm still hungry, but to have the two-year
security and to have the team put faith in me is really good.”
He and his girlfriend bought a house in Ottawa in the summer, hoping he might be around for awhile.
“We wanted to stop living out of a suitcase and going rental to rental,” Paul said. “We wanted a place to call home. I was hoping for a deal, but didn't know what was going to happen. To sign a deal is icing on the cake.”