The Florida Panthers announced today that they have agreed to a three-year deal with restricted free agent defenceman Dmitry Kulikov. The deal is worth $13 million, or an AAV of $4.3 million. Its quite the raise from the two-year deal that Kulikov just completed, which paid him $2.5 million per season.
The team announced the deal with the young Russian defender on their twitter account.
Dmitry Kulikov Signs Three Year Contract with #FlaPanthers pic.twitter.com/ANPgXYXmpv
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) July 18, 2014
“He’s got so much ability,” said Panthers GM Dale Tallon. “It’s time for him now to make a statement and be a leader on our team. He’s got all the ability in the world. It’s now just a matter of channeling it in the right direction. We’re happy to have him in the fold. He’s a great kid. He’s still a young guy with tremendous ability. Hard to find those guys.”
The 23-year-old Kulikov scored 8 goals and 11 assists for 19 points last season. Dmitry Kulikov has appeared in 313 career games, all with the Florida Panthers, scoring 24 goals and 75 assists, for 99 points. He was originally drafted by Florida in the first round, 14th overall, of the 2009 NHL Draft.
In terms of Fancy Stats, Dmitry Kulikov had a 51.2% corsi (+0.3% relative), 50.9% fenwick (+0.2% relative) with 49.0% zone starts (-0.3% relative) and facing top level competition in 21.4 minutes per game last season, including significant time on the penalty kill, and second pairing powerplay minutes.
He has proven to be fully capable as a top 4 defender in the NHL over his young career, and this looks like a very good signing for Florida.
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