2009-2010 Nikolai Kulemin

Slow start to the year, didn’t pick up his play until late. Was getting quality minutes without production in December and January. I’ll give him a slight boost for his excellent play in March, but was not a consistent performer October-April. Additionally, I expected more goal production, hands down.

Based on last year I figured him as a 2nd/3rd year guy, so he exceeded expectations. I thought he played well all year but was dragged down by some terrible teammates. Based on how he finished the season with Bozak and Kessel, I think he actually has legitimate first line potential. He’s not going to carry a first line, but he can certainly contribute positively there.

Exhibit A in his agent’s case will no doubt be the 15 game, ppg stretch he put together before Kessel got hurt and Wilson started playing linemate blender at the end of the year.

. He made the move from the third line to the top line with Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel effortlessly and while there is some truth to the fact that

The fact that what?

I never thought he’d get top line minutes, but he was an integral part of the forecheck on the Kuli-Bozak-Kessel line. Didn’t look out of place, although I wish our forward depth wasn’t so thin that he is forced onto the top line.

Did better than I expected.

Let’s finish up this contract BS. Don’t trade him Burke, we need a homegrown (as in, developed by the Leafs, not homegrown as in from Toronto) hard forechecker like this.

I had fairly low expectations, and to start the season, Kulemin was about a 5 for me (meeting those low expectations) and playing third line minutes with third line (AHL) quality teammates. Pre-Olympics, he was averaging 0.37 PPG, but jumped to 0.71 PPG over the 21 game post Olympic span.

Not sure what Wilson was thinking in keeping Kulemin’s minutes down to start the season, but if he played in a top 6 roll all season long, those 37 points might look a whole lot more like 55…

Also, SBN may need to update their player profiles. The Leafs site has Kulemin listed at 225lbs

8.

Could have been a 10 if he had signed an awesome contract like gus.

Easily my favourite Leaf. Plays a nice two-way game, excels on the forecheck and uses his size well.

I’d like to see him do more offensively with the prime ice time when he gets it. Finishing the season pointless in his last six games sure didn’t help.

Goals per game:

08/09 0.21
09/10 0.21

Assists per game

08/09 0.22
09/10 0.26

He had the same season two years in a row except this year he rode 21 games alongside Bozak and Kessel who were absolutely murdering.

I know he played well relative to his team, but this was kind of the minimum of what I expected. If he had come out of training camp the way he finished this season or last season, the Leafs might have had better luck in October.

Do I remember right? Wasn’t he a healthy scratch a couple of times back then?

What were people’s expectations of Kulemin that he exceeded them? Honestly. He had one more goal and four more assists in five more games than last year.

I think his offensive game didn’t progress as much as I would have liked in terms of production but in terms of the confidence he had it did. Plus his physical game improved.

However, I think it’s clear that if Grabovski is overpaid then giving more money to Kulemin for less is insane.

While he matched his scoring stats, he started to use his body more. Look at his hits, 136 this year (enough for 2nd on the team) to 73 last year. I know it’s only one stat of many, but it is something I noticed.

If that puck had gone off of Thomas’ leg that was stretched out in the air at 1:20 of the video that would’ve been save of the year material. Instead it’s a great goal for Kulemin… funny how the world works but hey, we’ll take it!