A rare arbitration case gets settled before hearing!

On Friday, the New York Islanders have avoided an arbitration hearing with restricted free agent winger Maxim Tsyplakov and signed him to a two-year, $4.5MM contract.

This was first reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Tsyplakov’s hearing was scheduled for Tuesday. This settlement comes with four days to go to spare. This is another arbitration case getting settled in the NHL prior to their respective hearings. Of the seven players who made it to mid-July without having their arbitration cases settled, two of them have now agreed to new deals. Earlier this week, the Seattle Kraken and forward Kaapo Kakko agreed to a three-year, $13.575MM deal before his hearing, which was initially scheduled for today.

However, when it comes to situation surrounding Tsyplakov, it was one of the rare case seeing that he was eligible for arbitration immediately after his rookie season. Since he signed his first NHL contract last summer at the age of 25, he only needed one season’s worth of 10 games of professional experience to qualify.

Tsyplakov had 10 goals and 35 points in 77 games last season, his first in the NHL after signing in New York as a free agent on May 16, 2024. Tsyplakov had 47 points (31 goals, 16 assists) in 65 games with Spartak Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League back in 2023-24.