The rookie defenceman has officially made the jump from temp to full-time status this year and will play his career-high tenth game on Friday night
Ottawa Senators defenceman Tyler Kleven has been banging on the NHL door for some time now. In 2022-23, coming out of the University of North Dakota, Kleven got into eight NHL games. Last season, he played in nine.
On Friday night, as the Senators face the Rangers in New York, Kleven hasn't missed a game yet, hitting a career-high ten games in the show. Everything is a career high after this. It feels like the NHL training wheels are officially off, with no further worries about falling... back down to Belleville.
"Yeah, I think it's nice," Kleven said. "Just being able to get closer with the coaching staff and the guys has been really helpful. Working with the coaches every day off the ice, and then being able to talk to them on the ice too when we're in a game. That's a big help.
"And just knowing like, if I make a mistake, I'm not going to get sent down right away. I've just got to keep playing my game and just play good hockey, keep it simple and move the puck into the forwards' hands. And I think that that's how I'm going to help the team win games. And yeah, I'm thankful to be here."
Like Kleven, Sens head coach Travis Green spent a couple of years in the AHL when he was a player, trying to break in with the New York Islanders. So I asked Green about Kleven's transition to full-time status and whether the confidence that goes with that makes you a better player.
It does," Green said. "You know, confidence is a funny thing. And when you have it, you feel like you can do anything. When you don't, you feel like you can't do anything at all. So I think that's been the biggest part that I've seen in (Kleven's) game is that he has a look of belief inside of him. And you can have a bunch of people tell you to be confident, but it really comes from within. And that's been the biggest change."
Green feels like Kleven probably didn't have his best training camp, perhaps thinking a little bit too much. But in every game, he's seeing improvement from Kleven in different areas.
"I think confidence is a big part of his progression. He seems like he believes that he fits. He's playing quicker, harder, passing with more authority. Everything he's doing has more conviction in it and he's progressing nicely."
Kleven sits near veteran defenceman Travis Hamonic in the locker room. After practice, as I got my recording gear set up, Kleven was still picking Hamonic's brain on boxing-out techniques in front of the net. Everything you hear about Hamonic's positive influence and mentorship is bang on. He's almost like a second Coach Travis helping to bring along Ottawa's army of young North Dakota defencemen.
"Yeah, he's played 15 seasons and he'll be the first one to tell you that," Kleven said. "But yeah, he's got so much experience and he brings it and he shows it to us every day too. I know Sandy learned a lot from him over the last two years and played a lot of games with him.
"We work on stuff after practice and he's always teaching me little things. He's a great guy to be around, and one of the funniest guys in the locker room for sure."
On that note, Kleven says he genuinely enjoys the mix of characters and the camaraderie in Ottawa's room.
"Yeah, it's a pretty fun group. There's a lot of young guys mixed with a lot of old guys on this team too. But I feel like we're all this like, we all have similar personalities and we all just like to obviously win games and have fun doing it. There's always a buzz around the room."
And how do the old guys feel about Kleven calling them old guys?
"I don't know [laughing]. I mean, they're not even old guys on the ice. They move so well and they keep the locker room together and hard times. If we're down again, they're always talking in the locker room. Some of the younger guys are speaking up too at times. So I think it's a well-rounded team and yeah, I hope we go a long way this year."