Florida Panthers: Trading Dmitry Kulikov was a brilliant move in hindsight

Viewing this highly debatable, controversial deal which saw the Florida Panthers trade long-tenured D-man Dmitry Kulikov in exchange for invaluable Mark Pysyk; can currently be perceived as a successful transaction.

Coming off the magnificent season FLA experienced in 2015-16; they made a point of emphasis of making their defensive-minded D-men available on the open market. Regarding Kulikov’s case, the Cats were simply hoping to receive some value in return. Florida essentially decided to part ways with the veteran Russian during the second day of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft .

The Panthers brought aboard underrated, “analytical darling” Mark Pysyk who was incredibly impressive throughout the course of the 2016-17 campaign. Playing in all 82 regular season games for the Cats, Pysyk was arguably Florida’s most consistent defenseman; accumulating 4G and 13A for 17 points.

Mark played both ends of the ice remarkably well, as evidenced by his outstanding statistics and the eye-test (watching Pysyk on a nightly basis). Although Mark experienced occasional struggles on the defensive end (like many defensemen around the league), he was able to minimize the turnovers and handle increased ice time, especially in regards to constantly killing penalties.

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On the opposite spectrum, Dmitry Kulikov experienced what many considered a surprisingly miserable year, offensively and defensively. Although injuries played a sizeable role in his year-long struggles, Kulikov was only able to amass 5 points in 47 games, playing top pairing minutes with talented d-man Rasmus Ristolainen.

The defensive end proved to be a forgettable nightmare for Kulikov, as he contained a disastrous +/- of -26 at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season (Pysyk maintained a +/- of 0). Kulikov was playing around 22 minutes per night and failed to contribute at an efficient rate; thus causing the Buffalo Sabres to let him walk via free agency this offseason.

This trade was beneficial from a financial perspective, as Kulikov signed a three-year contract paying him approximately $4.33M AAV compared to Pysyk’s recently signed inexpensive deal ($2.7M AAV over 3 years). Florida ultimately benefited by unloading a declining, unreliable, injury-plagued Kulikov and essentially replacing him with a dependable, versatile, incredibly consistent Pysyk.

Next: Florida Panthers: Expected players on the first penalty killing unit

Personally, I truly wish Dmitry Kulikov great success in his new home; however, it strongly appears that Florida won the widely discussed draft day deal from a year ago.