Dmitry Kulikov
Florida Panthers Defense
34 years old, a plus-12, and 51.7 per cent in the club's third-pair minutes.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | FLA | 68 | 3 | 13 | 16 | -5 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 87 | 3.5 | 17:56 |
| 2010-11 | FLA | 72 | 6 | 20 | 26 | -5 | 45 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 83 | 7.2 | 19:57 |
| 2011-12 | FLA | 58 | 4 | 24 | 28 | -5 | 36 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 104 | 3.9 | 21:51 |
| 2012-13 | FLA | 34 | 3 | 7 | 10 | -5 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 52 | 5.8 | 20:59 |
| 2013-14 | FLA | 81 | 8 | 11 | 19 | -26 | 66 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 127 | 6.3 | 21:42 |
| 2014-15 | FLA | 73 | 3 | 19 | 22 | 0 | 48 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 83 | 3.6 | 21:19 |
| 2015-16 | FLA | 74 | 1 | 16 | 17 | +8 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 99 | 1.0 | 21:02 |
| 2016-17 | BUF | 47 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -26 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 4.8 | 21:54 |
| 2017-18 | WPG | 62 | 3 | 8 | 11 | +6 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 48 | 6.3 | 17:04 |
| 2018-19 | WPG | 57 | 0 | 6 | 6 | +4 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 0.0 | 15:40 |
| 2019-20 | WPG | 51 | 2 | 8 | 10 | -4 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 54 | 3.7 | 20:01 |
| 2020-21 | NJD/EDM | 48 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -3 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 0.0 | 19:10 |
| 2021-22 | MIN | 80 | 7 | 17 | 24 | +23 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 74 | 9.5 | 18:12 |
| 2022-23 | ANA/PIT | 67 | 3 | 13 | 16 | -13 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 84 | 3.6 | 19:29 |
| 2023-24 | FLA | 76 | 1 | 19 | 20 | +15 | 63 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 | 1.4 | 16:31 |
| 2024-25 | FLA | 70 | 4 | 9 | 13 | +12 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 6.3 | 19:16 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 1018 | 50 | 197 | 247 | -24 | 629 | 10 | 1 | 9 | 1166 | 4.3 | 19:27 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
4 goals and 9 assists in 70 games for 13 points, plus-12, on 19:16 a night.
51.7 per cent at five-on-five, the 68th percentile, over 1,160 minutes. His on-ice goals were 50-41 against an expected 46-43.
The Finesse Game
Almost none. 64 shots in 70 games and 4 goals, and 9 assists — the offensive return is among the lowest in this edition for a defenceman playing 19 minutes.
The first pass is short and safe. Nothing is attempted and nothing goes wrong.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 212, and he plays a hard, direct game. He clears his crease, hits, and blocks shots without theatre.
38 penalty minutes over 70 games is a moderate rate. The durability at 34 is good and the game does not depend on pace.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, seven organisations, sixteen seasons, and a second stint with the club that drafted him that has produced two Cups.
At 34 the projection is 65 games of competent defensive hockey. The reason this club keeps re-signing him is that he does exactly one thing and never attempts a second.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,160 minutes
- Expected goals
- 51.7%
- 69th pct
- Shot attempts
- 53.1%
- 83rd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 50 for, 41 against. Expected: 45.9 and 42.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 33 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1160 minutes at five-on-five
- Niko Mikkola59%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- FLA took 54.0% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 51.7% — 2.3 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,160 minutes at five-on-five — 81st percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niko Mikkola | 53.3% | 49.4% | 56.2% |
| Sam Bennett | 51.3% | 52.0% | 54.5% |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 53.7% | 51.0% | 56.7% |
53.3% together, 49.4% for him apart and 56.2% for Mikkola apart. He was worse away from Mikkola, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Mikkola did.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
100 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 56 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 76% from beyond forty.