The Vancouver Canucks have made it official: Ilya Mikheyev is headed to the Windy City. And so is Sam Lafferty
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported that the Canucks were working on a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks late Wednesday afternoon, and after a couple of hours of wondering, we’ve finally got the full return made official.
To Chicago: Ilya Mikheyev (VAN retains 15%), Sam Lafferty, and a 2027 second round pick
To Vancouver: 2027 4th round pick
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli first reported the full pieces of the trade earlier on Wednesday. Seravalli also was the first to report that the Canucks are retaining 15% of Mikheyev’s contract.
“I would like to thank both Sam and Ilya for their time in Vancouver and wish them both the best moving forward,” said Allvin. “In Mik’s case, we were really impressed with how hard he worked to come back from his knee surgery. That determination and drive is what makes him such a good player.”
With the move, the Canucks create serious cap flexibility heading into July 1st free agency, where they’re expected to be a big player for the summer’s biggest free agent, Jake Guentzel.
They may also try to get a deal done with Dakota Joshua or Nikita Zadorov before that time when both players — who were both great fits with the Canucks — will hit the open market and sign with new teams.
No matter what they do, the Canucks will have an extra $4.037 million for both this season and next as a result of the deal. The Canucks signed Mikheyev to a four year deal worth $19 million during the 2022 offseason. After a decent start to his Canucks career despite playing on a partially torn ACL that he suffered in a preseason game, Mikheyev was shut down for surgery in January 2023.
The original hope was that he would be ready for the 2023-24 season, but the healing process ended up taking longer, meaning Mikheyev had to start this year late. From there, he never really found his footing, and struggled mightily down the final stretch of the season and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where he registered zero points in 11 games.
While there’s certainly bounce back potential for Mikheyev, the Canucks clearly felt they simply couldn’t take that risk and that they needed this cap space in order to improve their team this offseason.
What do you think of the deal, Canucks fans?
