The Wild traded veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to the Anaheim Ducks for future considerations on Wednesday.
Wild trade defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to Anaheim
The veteran played in 80 regular-season games but was dealt to free up salary cap space.
August 31, 2022 at 10:21PM
Kulikov, 31, joined the Wild on a two-year, $4.5 million contract as a free agent in July 2021. He had seven goals and 17 assists for 24 points and was plus-23 with 39 penalty minutes in 80 regular-season games last season.
However, he played in only two of the six playoff games against the Blues, as the team replaced him in the lineup with Alex Goligoski in Game 2. Kulikov switched back in for Goligoski in Game 6.
"Dmitry was a good player for us," Wild General Manager Bill Guerin said. "This is a tough one because he had a great year last year, played very well for us. But we need some more cap place. We felt we had maybe one too many defensemen and we didn't want to put guys in position where they're not playing, or not playing enough.
"This has been talked about for quite a while with Anaheim, so it just kind of came to a head today. Wish him nothing but the best."
The Russian joins his seventh NHL team, having also played for Florida, Buffalo, Winnipeg, New Jersey and Edmonton since 2009. In 805 regular-season games, he has 198 points (42 goals, 156 assists) and 494 penalty minutes.
The Wild have been the surprise of the league as their high-scoring winger makes a shambles of team scoring records.
