Dmitry Vladimirovich Kulikov (russian: Дми́трий Влади́мирович Кулико́в; born 29 October 1990) is a Russian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

for the

Anaheim Ducks The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California. The Ducks compete in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division, and play their home games at Honda Center. ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). He was drafted by the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

in the first round, 14th overall, at the

2009 NHL Entry Draft The 2009 NHL Entry Draft was the 47th Entry Draft. It was held on June 26–27, 2009, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. The Draft was part of the Montreal Canadiens' centennial celebrations. National Hockey League teams took turns select ...

. He has previously played for the Panthers,

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional sports, professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

, and

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

Playing career

Junior

Kulikov began his career in his homeland

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

with

Lokomotiv-2 Yaroslavl Hockey Club Lokomotiv (russian: ХК Локомотив, en, Locomotive HC), also known as Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, is a Russian professional ice hockey team, based in the city of Yaroslavl, playing in the top level Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ...

in the

Pervaya Liga The All-Russian Hockey League B or VHL-B (russian: Первенство Всероссийской хоккейной лиги (ВХЛ-Б), ''Pervenstvo Vserossiyskoy hokkeynoy ligi'') is an ice hockey league in Russia. It stands at the third-ti ...

, and left his club in November 2008 to sign for the

Drummondville Voltigeurs The Drummondville Voltigeurs are a junior ice hockey team of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). The franchise was originally granted for the 1982–83 season, and is based in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, playing its home games at th ...

of the

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...

(QMJHL) in North America. In his lone season with Drummondville, Kulikov led all QMJHL defencemen with 62 points in 57 games, and took home a slew of post-season awards, including the

Emile Bouchard Trophy The Émile Bouchard Trophy is awarded annually by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, to the "Defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing te ...

as the QMJHL Defenceman of the Year, the

Raymond Lagacé Trophy The Raymond Lagacé Trophy is awarded annually to the Defensive Rookie of the Year in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Prior to 1980, there was only one Rookie of the Year trophy, the Michel Bergeron Trophy The Michel Bergeron Trophy is awar ...

as the Defensive Rookie of the Year and the

Mike Bossy Trophy The Michael Bossy Trophy ('' French:Trophée Michael Bossy'') is awarded annually to the player in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League judged to be the best professional prospect. The award is named after former New York Islanders forward Mike B ...

as the League's top professional prospect.

Professional

After his rookie year with the Voltigeurs, Kulikov was drafted by the

14th overall in the

, and was later signed to a professional contract the club on 29 September 2009. Despite his age, Kulikov managed to play in 68 games with Florida in his rookie season, 2009–10, displaying high levels of skill and confidence. Panthers General Manager

Dale Tallon Michael "Dale" Tallon (born October 19, 1950) is a Canadian ice hockey executive and former player. He played in the NHL for ten years as a defenceman for the Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Following his retir ...

expressed that the Panthers organization had high expectations of Kulikov for the future. On 18 July 2014, Kulikov signed a three-year, $13 million contract extension with the Panthers, worth $4.3 million annually. On 25 June 2016, Kulikov was traded to the

, along with the 33rd overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft in exchange for defenceman

Mark Pysyk Mark Alexander Terrance Pysyk (born January 11, 1992) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and forward for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). Pysyk was originally selected in the first round, 23rd overall, i ...

and picks 38 and 89 in the 2016 draft. In the 2016–17 season, Kulikov's time with the Sabres was largely affected through injury. In the last year of his contract, he appeared in 47 games to produce a career low 2 goals and 5 points. On 1 July 2017, as a free agent from his disappointing tenure with the Sabres, Kulikov was signed to a three-year, $12 million contract with the

. After the completion of his contract with the Jets, Kulikov left as a free agent and on 22 October 2020, he was signed to a one-year, $1.15 million contract with the

. In the pandemic delayed

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, Kulikov brought a sound defensive game to the Devils, registering 2 assists through 38 regular season games. With the Devils out of playoff contention, Kulikov was dealt at the trade deadline to the

in exchange for a conditional fourth-round selection in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

on 12 April 2021. At the conclusion of his contract with the Oilers, Kulikov left as a free agent and on 28 July 2021, was signed to a two-year, $4.5 million contract with the Minnesota Wild. After one season with the Wild, Kulikov was traded to the

for future considerations on August 31, 2022.

International play

Kulikov represented

in two Under-18 World Cups:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

in Russia. He was then a member of

Team Russia Team Russia was the name of the Russian backed entry in the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race. Team Russia was founded by Oleg Zherebtsov, the founder of the Lenta hypermarket chain in Russia. Zherebstov met former Olympic sailor and professional sk ...

at the

2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (''2009 WJHC''), was the 33rd edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship and was hosted in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Games were held at the Ottawa Civic Centre and Scotiabank Place. The tourn ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kulikov, Dmitri 1990 births Living people Anaheim Ducks players Buffalo Sabres players Drummondville Voltigeurs players Edmonton Oilers players Florida Panthers draft picks Florida Panthers players Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players Minnesota Wild players National Hockey League first-round draft picks New Jersey Devils players Russian expatriate ice hockey people Russian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Russian ice hockey defencemen Sportspeople from Lipetsk Winnipeg Jets players