Islanders' Maxim Tsyplakov avoids arbitration, agrees to two-year deal
Islanders right wing Maxim Tsyplakov sets before a face off against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period of a game at UBS Arena on March 26, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche has placed the final checkmark on his offseason to-do list.
Restricted free-agent wing Maxim Tsyplakov avoided arbitration by agreeing to a two-year, $4.5 million deal on Friday.
The 26-year-old Russian, who compiled 10 goals and 25 assists as a rookie after parts of seven seasons in the Russian KHL, was one of 11 NHL players who elected for arbitration ahead of the July 7 deadline after rejecting his qualifying offer of $897,750. He came to the Islanders on a one-year, $950,000 deal.
Tsyplakov’s arbitration hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.
“I love it here,” Tsyplakov said on April 19 during the Islanders’ breakup day.
The new deal delays by one season Tsyplakov’s ability to reach unrestricted free agency.
He played up and down the lineup last season but likely will start his second NHL season in a bottom-six role, quite likely on the fourth line after Maxim Shabanov was signed out of the KHL as a free agent to a one-year, $975,000 deal, and NHL veteran Jonathan Drouin agreed to a two-year, $8 million deal.
Tsyplakov was the last of the Islanders’ RFAs to have their status resolved.
Darche had already signed forwards Simon Holmstrom (two years, $7.25 million), Emil Heineman (two years, $2.2 million) and Marc Gatcomb (one year, $900,000) and defensemen Alexander Romanov (eight years, $50 million) and Adam Boqvist (one year, $850,000). He also traded RFA defenseman Noah Dobson to the Canadiens, who promptly signed him to an eight-year, $76 million deal, for Heineman and picks Nos. 16 and 17 in June’s NHL Draft, which Darche used to select forward Victor Eklund and defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson.
Tsyplakov’s signing leaves the Islanders with $1.63 million in space under the $95.5 million salary cap.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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