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Kulemin was born in 1986 in Magnitogorsk, an industrial city in central Russia. The Maple Leafs drafted him in 2006, and he played left wing for the team from 2008 to 2014, signing two contract extensions along the way. He potted 121 goals over ten seasons in the NHL; his best came in 2010-11, when he scored 30 for the Leafs.

Russia has given me a lot but I now consider Canada home and my children deserve the opportunity to live in a free and democratic country. Nikolay Kulemin

The Kulemins filed for Canadian citizenship in December 2014, nearly six months after Nikolay entered free agency and signed a four-year, US $16.75-million contract with the New York Islanders. They finally got a hearing in the fall of 2017, which focused on the four-year span of their lives between Dec. 26, 2010 and Dec. 26, 2014.

“Russia has given me a lot but I now consider Canada home and my children deserve the opportunity to live in a free and democratic country,” Kulemin said in his affidavit for the hearing.

It described his growing attachment to Toronto and how he had always instructed his agent to keep him with the team. He especially liked Brian Burke, the team’s general manager at the time, describing him as “passionate, fair and knowledgeable.”

But the NHL locked out its players before the start of the 2012-13 season, and Kulemin went back to Magnitogorsk to play for the professional team there. His family, including his two young children, came with him. “No one knew how long this lockout would last and I did not want to be separated from my family,” he wrote.

When the season finally began in January 2013, he was excited to return — and the Leafs saw success. “We had a young team, played dynamite hockey and finally after nine years we made the playoffs,” he wrote. “The city was energized and fully behind us.”