The Maple Leafs won’t be taking Nikolai Kulemin to arbitration.
According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Leafs locked up Kulemin to a two-year contract worth $5.6 million, a deal that works out to a cap hit of $2.8 million per season.
Kulemin’s past season in Toronto was what you could call a letdown. He scored just seven goals last year, following a season that saw him pot 30 for the Leafs. Safe to say having back-to-back seasons like that wouldn’t have done him any favors in an arbitration hearing and settling on a new contract ahead of that was a good move.
For what it’s worth, Kulemin went from shooting just over 17-percent in his 30-goal season to 6.5 percent last season. Statistical corrections are cruel.
