The good news, if you're Brian Burke, is that two of your young players are playing key roles as the Leafs win games to close the season.
The bad news?
Both Jonas Gustavsson and Nikolai Kulemin will need new contracts in the off-season, and even though they're restricted free agents, the dollars attached to those deals are going up -- and could be problematic.
One thing Toronto doesn't have loads of for next season is cap space, even if they find a way to unload Jeff Finger, and how much they sign Gustavsson and Kulemin for will matter. Both have been terrific since Dion Phaneuf and J-S Giguere joined the team in late January:
The Monster is 7-1-0 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .920 save percentage, well above his earlier numbers. His positioning is far better, too. (Something I'll get into in a bit.)
Kulemin, meanwhile, is playing on the first line and more than 18 minutes a night. He's got six goals and 15 points in the 19 games since Burke's big house-cleaning and five goals and 13 points in his last 11 games after scoring the winner tonight against the Rangers.
Going into this season, Gustavsson and Kulemin -- 25 and 23 years old -- were big-time question marks. Now, they're getting pencilled in as significant parts of the rebuild-on-the-fly beginning in 2010-11.
It always seemed like Burke was going to bring Gustavsson back, but given his struggles pre-Giguere, I would have pegged his potential contract as one or two years and for about $1.5-million a season. If he continues to play like he has lately, he'll get more than that -- and suddenly the Leafs might have a lot of coin dedicated to their goalies given Giguere's $6-million hit.
Kulemin's in the same situation: Last year, only 15 goals and 31 points as a rookie, and he was on pace for about the same until pretty recently. Those aren't numbers that earn you a big raise, but now that he's playing big minutes, he's showed (in a small sample size, admittedly) that there may be more there.
I asked Ron Wilson after the win over the Rangers what he thought Kulemin's ceiling might be and if he was showing he could fit on the top line down the road.
"He’s a first- or second-line forward," Wilson said. "We’re not really deep in a whole bunch of high-end talent so he’s going to standout right now. I think he struggled a bit tonight, he looked tired at times, but when I made the little switch, I put Kulie with Grabo, that seemed to spark him a little bit."
Not the most ringing of endorsements, but the coach said he liked what he saw on the winning goal.
"Kulie was strong as a horse on that whole play – screening the goalie – and the guy who was trying to push Kulie out of the way actually interfered with his goalie and that gave Kulie an opportunity on the wrap around and Lundqvist couldn’t get there," Wilson said.
In any event, by my eyes, Kulemin's gone from looking like a 15- to 20-goal guy for his first season and a half in the NHL to potentially something a lot more valuable. He was a pretty decent scorer as a young guy in the Russian league (albeit playing with Malkin) and is way, way more confident with a lot of things now: the pace of play in North America, the language and his place on the team.
He's also a lot stronger than many people realize and defensively responsible.
Add it all up, and his agent's got to be pretty happy with recent developments.
