By Mark Lazerus, Scott Powers and Chris Johnston
The final time the Blackhawks coaxed a second-round select of the Vancouver Canucks to tackle a supposedly unhealthy contract, they landed Jason Dickinson, who rapidly emerged as one in every of their finest gamers and simply had a Selke Trophy-caliber second season in Chicago.
Kyle Davidson is outwardly hoping for the same coup with Ilya Mikheyev.
The Canucks are sending Mikheyev, the rights to pending unrestricted free agent Sam Lafferty and a 2027 second-round decide to Chicago for a 2027 fourth-round decide. The Athletic’s Chris Johnston reported that Mikheyev waived his modified no-trade clause to finish the deal. It’s a cap dump for Vancouver, pure and easy, and the Canucks are retaining 15 p.c of Mikheyev’s $4.75 million cap hit for 2 extra years. For Chicago, it’s taking a flier on a participant who may as soon as fly.
The 29-year-old Mikheyev is an intriguing reclamation venture for the Blackhawks, who’ve each cap area and persistence to burn. As soon as one of many quickest skaters within the league and a robust producer — 21 targets in 53 video games throughout the 2021-22 season and 13 targets in 46 video games in 2022-23 — with robust defensive metrics, Mikheyev hasn’t been the identical since ACL surgical procedure minimize his season quick in 2023. He performed 78 video games this season, his first for the reason that surgical procedure, however had simply 11 targets and 20 assists. Ten of these 11 targets got here in his first 28 video games of the season, as his offense dried up over his ultimate 50 video games. He didn’t have any factors in 11 playoff video games.
Per the NHL’s Edge monitoring system, Mikheyev was nonetheless a robust skater, within the 69th percentile in prime pace and seventieth percentile in pace bursts over 20 mph. However again in 2021-22, he was within the ninety fifth percentile in each classes.
“For me, guys coming off that surgical procedure don’t get again to their sport till the second 12 months after their surgical procedure,” an Japanese Convention scout mentioned. “I might take the gamble if I acquired him in an under-value commerce.”
The Blackhawks have been the lowest-scoring workforce within the league final season with 2.17 targets per sport, and basic supervisor Kyle Davidson vowed his workforce can be extra aggressive this season. Chicago has important curiosity in higher-end gamers comparable to Jake Guentzel and Martin Necas, however these are considerably lengthy photographs. Mikheyev isn’t at their degree, and the Blackhawks envision him extra in a third-liner/penalty-killing sort position. However he may present some depth scoring, which Chicago sorely wants.
As for Lafferty, he carved out a pleasant position for himself in his two seasons in Chicago as a penalty-killing bottom-sixer earlier than being traded to Toronto on the 2023 deadline. The Blackhawks now have unique negotiating rights with Lafferty till free company opens on Monday. They hope to signal him and, paired with Mikheyev, considerably improve their backside six.
(Photograph of Ilya Mikheyev: Bob Frid / USA Right this moment)