Ilya Mikheyev has two years remaining on his contract which carries a $4.75 million cap hit.

As the Vancouver Canucks try and navigate a tricky offseason, one name that has come up in trade conversation is Ilya Mikheyev. According to a report from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, GM Patrik Allvin has had discussions with other teams about trading Mikheyev this offseason. In his report, Seravalli also mentions that conversations around Mikheyev also happened around the trade deadline, but a deal was not reached. 

The 2023-24 campaign was not kind to Mikheyev. At one point, he had a 34-game goalless drought and failed to record a point during the postseason. Coming off ACL surgery that he had back in early 2023, he was never able to showcase his true speed, which hurt overall play as the season progressed. 

Trading Mikheyev will not be an easy task for Allvin and his team, as multiple factors are going against them. The first is that Mikheyev has a 12-team no-trade clause, which, if he chooses not to waive it, eliminates over a third of the league. Unfortunately, these lists are not made public, meaning all the public can do is speculate on which organizations may be on his list. 

The other issue is Mikheyev's salary cost. While the cap is going up, having a bottom-six winger making $4.75 million is not ideal for most franchises. This most likely means Vancouver will need to retain some salary which could cause cap issues for the Canucks. 

On top of retaining salary, Vancouver may need to throw in an additional draft pick in order to dump Mikheyev's salary. According to PuckPedia, the current projected cost would be an early second-rounder, which the Canucks do not have this year. If Vancouver does decide to move next year's second-rounder in the deal, it will mean the club will not pick in the second round for four straight years, with their last selection coming in 2021 when they selected Danila Klimovich.

Ultimately, this is a messy situation, but one that Vancouver needs to sort out sooner rather than later. With free agency just a few weeks away, the Canucks need to know how much cap space the organization will have this offseason and whether or not they can afford to sign some of their high-priced pending free agents. As for Mikheyev, moving to a new organization and getting a fresh start may be what's best for him as he looks to get back on track ahead of the 2024-25 campaign. 

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