VANCOUVER – It’s not true that the Vancouver Canucks did not get a player back in the amazing Ilya Mikheyev salary dump on Wednesday night.
It’s just too early to say which of their own free agents – or someone else’s – they can now afford after general manager Patrik Allvin added more than $4 million to Vancouver’s cap space by trading a 2027 second-round pick and the rights to impending unrestricted free agent Sam Lafferty to the Chicago Blackhawks as enticement for taking Mikheyev and the final two years of his contract off the Canucks.
With six other Canucks still speeding towards unrestricted free agency and the team already linked in reports to Carolina Hurricanes free agent Jake Guentzel, Mikheyev’s dead-weight salary of $4.75 million had become a major impediment for Allvin.
But Wednesday’s trade and the Canucks’ 15-per cent salary retention on Mikheyev reduced the winger’s cap hit to just $712,500. Allvin suddenly has more options and cap flexibility as he grinds through negotiations with UFA-eligible Canucks like Dakota Joshua and Nikita Zadorov ahead of the opening of free agency on Monday.
The GM stated a month ago at the end of Vancouver’s season that an off-season priority is to add a top-six winger (like Guentzel, although Allvin couldn’t say that Wednesday night when he spoke with Sportsnet.ca).
“It’s always tough to give up assets to get out of contracts, but that’s just the reality in today’s NHL,” Allvin said from Las Vegas, where the trade was finalized during a Canucks hockey-operations dinner ahead of the entry draft there Friday and Saturday. “But it does give us more flexibility on July 1 and leading up to Monday with our own free agents. From that standpoint, I was very pleased to get this trade done.”
Even with last week’s $58-million, eight-year contract extension for No. 2 Canuck defenceman Filip Hronek and the smart re-signing earlier Wednesday of depth centre Teddy Blueger, who agreed to two more seasons at $1.8 million, capfriendly.com shows Allvin with a whopping $20.8 million of available cap space after offloading Mikheyev.
Lafferty, another speedy winger who went pointless in the playoffs before getting healthy-scratched, was unlikely to be re-signed for Vancouver’s fourth line. And even the Canucks’ surrender of their second-round pick three years from now is softened by the inclusion in the trade of the Blackhawks’ fourth-rounder in 2027.
Asked if the sudden in-flow of cash could loosen his negotiations with other Canuck free agents, Allvin said: “It’s hard to say until you get to the finish line because there are so many moving parts. We’ll see what happens next but hopefully we can get more done.
“There’s ongoing conversations with guys. At the moment, it’s a tussle and we obviously have to be careful how we spend our dollars. At the end of the day, we want to make sure we have a good team. I think that’s important to all of our players.”
Clearly, Allvin is not afraid to take risks – or find an exit strategy when he is wrong.
Mikheyev was the Canucks’ marquee acquisition two summers ago when Allvin, then less than six months on the job in Vancouver, signed the winger to a four-year, $19-million contract as a free agent from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The speedy Russian, however, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during his first pre-season game for Vancouver. After playing injured for four months, Mikheyev finally underwent surgery but struggled mightily this past season upon his return.
After a hot start that saw him score six times in his first 11 games back from surgery, Mikheyev managed only one goal in the final 50 regular-season games before going pointless in 11 playoff contests. The 29-year-old was twice a healthy scratch for coach Rick Tocchet during the Canucks’ seven-game loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the Stanley Cup tournament.
Mikheyev owned his struggles. His inability to score or find and maintain for the Canucks the high-speed, high-pressure game he played in Toronto clearly bothered Mikheyev and eroded his confidence. This was a player who so badly wanted to impress the Canucks that he was in tears when the team finally shut him down two seasons ago to get his knee repaired.
“I truly believe Ilya Mikheyev will bounce back and be a good player for Chicago,” Allvin said. “He’s a great person and a good player. And he was extremely professional through all of this. He was thankful for his time in Vancouver. He said he and his wife loved the city and the fans and how he was treated. I can’t say enough about Ilya Mikheyev and I wish him the best.”
Shedding $4 million of his salary will give the Canucks a better chance to be their best next season.