Why the Canucks are hoping to trade Ilya Mikheyev
The veteran winger struggled in 2023-24 and the Canucks obviously would like to use his cap space on someone else, sources confirm
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The Vancouver Canucks have a good amount of salary cap space to fill this summer, but with a few high-profile contract negotiations in front of them, they apparently want to find even more.
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One way they could open up a little more space would be to trade underperforming winger Ilya Mikheyev.
As first reported by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Postmedia can confirm from several league sources that the Canucks have spoken with teams around the NHL about Mikheyev, who still has two years remaining on his contract, averaging $4.75 million per season.
“They’d love to get out of him. It was a terrible signing,” a league source said.
Mikheyev signed a four-year deal with Vancouver in the summer of 2022. At the time, some observers raised their eyebrows about Mikheyev’s wage, but he was an intriguing talent, a speedy winger, adept at killing penalties and with some scoring ability, although he was considered a bit of a one-trick pony around the net.
He’d struggled with injuries over the previous seasons in Toronto, including a serious wrist injury midway through the 2019-20 campaign, which was his first season in the NHL after four in the KHL. He needed surgery to repair severed tendons and arteries in his right wrist, putting him on the shelf for three months (which would prove to be the rest of the season when the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2019-20 regular season early).
Before the injury, he’d been somewhat productive, scoring eight goals in 39 games.
His first season back, though, was a struggle. He suited up for 51 games, but scored just 7 times. You couldn’t help but wonder if the wrist injury meant he’d never be able to finish like he had before.
And then to start what would be his final season in Toronto, he suffered a broken wrist late in the pre-season. He didn’t play again until December, but once he found his groove again, he looked to have found his scoring touch: he erupted for 21 goals in 53 games, which drew Vancouver’s attention.
He suffered an ACL tear in his left knee in his final pre-season game in 2022, but played through it for half the season. His skating wasn’t anywhere near as explosive as it had been in Toronto, but he still showed some scoring touch, scoring 13 goals in 46 games. That’s a 20-goal pace, which is exactly what the Canucks hoped they’d get from him.
With the playoffs a dream, he was shut down in late January and had surgery to repair his knee in early February.
His long road back to full recovery meant he missed training camp for the 2023-24 season and the first four games of the season.
It took him time to rediscover confidence in his knee, but in the early going he was at least a productive scorer. He hit the back of the net 10 times before Christmas, almost always skating with Elias Pettersson.
But then he hit the wall. After scoring his 10th goal of the season Dec. 17 vs. Chicago, he scored just one more time in a 61-game stretch over the regular season and through the playoffs.
And it wasn’t for lack of trying. He kept going to good spots and the puck kept landing on his stick — he took 147 shots this season, tying his career-best — but he couldn’t bury the biscuit. Some of his speed finally returned too, so he was at least an effective defensive player, but he was paid to be more than that.
If the Canucks are going to succeed in trading Mikheyev, you have to think they’d have to give up at least a draft pick to do it. He’s still an NHL player, even if his salary doesn’t match his production. There are teams who are not thinking about contending next season — the Canucks want to be a contender next season — and Mikheyev would be a good fit for a team that’s looking for NHL competence.
But no team is likely to help the Canucks out of this one for free. Moving off Mikheyev would mean the Canucks could use his cap hit to help sign a high-priced free agent, and that kind of benefit will cost them.
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