Thursday, March 15, 2012

Kulemin Out With Broken Finger

It appears that the regular season for Nikolai Kulemin has been cut short, as the Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that they will be without one of their scoring wingers for the next three weeks with a broken finger. There is only a shade over three weeks left in the season and it may be wise for the Leafs to shut him down, since they have fallen well out of the playoff race in the East.

Kulemin was reportedly hurt in the Leafs' last game on Tuesday, when they played the Panthers.  The team is now in 12th in the East, 10 points out of a playoff spot and with this injury, the likelihood of a remarkable comeback has faded away.

The 2012 season for Kulemin hasn't been too good, as 25-year old winger has only picked up 7 goals and 21 assists in 70 games for the team, ranking him 245th in pool scoring, as of Thursday afternoon.

Kulemin is scheduled to become a restricted free agent in the Summer and his current numbers won't likely mean a big pay day for him, but I think the club would be okay with that after signing Mikhail Grabovski to a big contract.

ImplicationsThe seasonal chase for the money had long since ended for John P. this season and with injuries starting to mount again for him, the slight chance that his team would have cracked the top 10 has now gone and disappeared.  A very disappointing season, indeed.

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