Ilya Mikheyev had zero points in 11 games for the Vancouver Canucks during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Ilya Mikheyev had zero points in 11 games for the Vancouver Canucks during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
With the season complete, the Vancouver Canucks have some tough decisions they need to make. One is what to do with Ilya Mikheyev, who struggled in the second half of the season and was a healthy scratch for two games in the postseason. Signed for two more years and carrying a cap hit of $4.75 million, it is unlikely Canucks GM Patrik Allvin will be able to move the winger this offseason.
While there have been calls from fans in Vancouver to buy out Mikheyev, this option is not feasible due to long-term cap implications. Here is a look at how a buyout would look over the next four years, as per CapFriendly:
The big problem with the buyout is the second year, where the Canucks would be charged a $2.15 million cap hit. While on its own, this is not massive, when combined with the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout, it would mean $6,916,667 million in dead cap space for the 2025-26 campaign. For reference, only three players on Vancouver's roster currently make more than $6.7 million. Even though the cap will be going up, having just under $7 million in unusable cap space could cause issues, especially if the Canucks want to keep Brock Boeser, whose contract is set to expire at the end of this season.
As for a potential trade, two main issues could affect Vancouver's ability to move Mikheyev. The first is his modified no-trade clause. While Mikheyev can be traded, he is allowed to submit a 12-team no-trade list. Unfortunately, those lists are not public, meaning those outside the organization can only speculate as to which teams he can be traded to and which teams the Canucks would need to ask him to waive if a deal were to get done.
Trading may also be a difficult task due to Mikheyev's $4.75 million cap hit for the next two seasons. Not only are teams already pressed against the cap, but it may be hard to find a team that sees Mikheyev as valuable based on his performance over the past few months. Vancouver is also not in a position to trade additional assets in order to move Mikheyev's contract, which makes a trade from the Canucks highly unlikely.
At this point, the most likely option when it comes to Mikheyev is that he will be on Vancouver's roster at the start of the 2024-25 campaign. That being said, the Canucks need to do a better job at playing him in a role that he is actually capable of playing. While it is not an ideal situation, Mikheyev playing on the fourth line and in a penalty kill role may be the best option heading into next season.
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