The 23-year-old defenseman originally played with the Railers in 2022-23.
The Worcester Railers announced they have re-signed defenseman Artyom Kulakov to an ECHL contract for the 2024-25 season.
The 23-year-old Kulakov will begin his second full professional season. He originally joined Worcester at the end of the 2022-23 season after having played in 59 games for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League.
The 6-foot-3, 216-pound defenseman was voted the Railers Tough Guy of the Year award winner after accumulating 74 penalty minutes in 61 games to go with twelve points (4-8-12).
The Bolshoy Kamen, Russia native had one goal and one assist in seven games in his first stint with Worcester.
Railers head coach Bob Deraney calls Kulakov a cornerstone of the team's blueline.
"Kulakov is one of the best shut down defensemen in our league," Deraney said. "We look forward to him taking that elite defensive ability to another level and continuing to develop the offensive side of his game that started to emerge at the end of last season.”
Prior to professional hockey, Kulakov spent two seasons with Erie. In his 102 career games with the Otters, Kulakov scored 16 points (5G, 11A) to go with 145 penalty minutes and a -36 +/- rating. He also played one season with Omskie Yastreby of the MHL in Russia during 2020-21, appearing in 29 games and scoring 12 points (4-8-12 and totaling 39 penalty minutes.
The Railers have announced sixteen players officially signed for the 2024-25 season as Kulakov joins Matt DeMelis, Austin Heidemann, Matthew Barnaby Jr., Ryan Dickinson, Jordan Kaplan, Michael Bullion, Griffin Loughran, John Muse, Cole Donhauser, Ryan Verrier, Colin Jacobs, Connor Welsh, Anthony Callin, JD Dudek, and Anthony Repaci as the 16 signees. More announcements are expected over the coming weeks.