Despite allowing his agent to facilitate a move, it doesn't appear that the Vancouver Canucks are close to trading forward Ilya Mikheyev. On Monday's edition of Canucks Central, Satiar Shah shared that internally, there's a belief that an Ilya Mikheyev trade isn't close to being complete and for now, Patrik Allvin remains adamant about not attaching an asset just to get his contract off the books.
Mikheyev, 29, has two years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $4.5 million and is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026. The Canucks don't have many draft picks that they'd be willing to part with to off-load Mikheyev's contract and probably aren't wanting to retain salary either, so there's a possibility he's not moved at all this summer and starts the year in Vancouver.
However, Mikheyev's agent is continuing to facilitate a move for his client and the Canucks, but it won't be easy given the season he had and was not good whatsoever in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In 78 games during the regular season, Mikheyev had 31 points (11 goals, 20 assists), four penalty minutes and was a plus-one. Then in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Omsk, Russia native went point-less in 11 games, which can't happen, especially for someone making near $5 million per season.
