Canucks: Ilya Mikheyev’s agent helping to find trade partner

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Ilya Mikheyev’s time as a Vancouver Canuck may be nearing an end.

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His agent, Dan Milstein, confirmed to Postmedia News on Thursday that he’s been given permission by the Canucks to speak with other NHL clubs about a possible trade. CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal was first with the news. Milstein declined further comment.

Reports first surfaced a week ago that the Canucks were looking to move Mikheyev, who signed a four-year, US$19 million contract in summer 2022.

Now, a week later, they’ve turned to the player’s agent for help.

Milstein now getting involved isn’t a guarantee that anything will happen, of course, but it’s another clear statement from Vancouver about the direction that they would like to take their roster over the next month: Find a different way to use the US$4.75 million in cap space that is currently taken up by Mikheyev’s contract.

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Mikheyev, who has two years left on his deal, scored only one goal over his last 61 regular-season and playoff games. He finished with 11 goals total last season.

He’s still a dependable defensive player, but the decline in his scoring touch was problematic: He was asked to play like a top-line player but didn’t produce like one.

Mikheyev suffered an ACL tear in his left knee early in his first training camp in Vancouver and eventually needed surgery to repair the torn ligament. Even playing with a damaged ACL, Mikheyev was pretty productive in his first season in Vancouver. Because of his damaged knee he wasn’t the explosive skater the Canucks had hoped he would be, but he still scored 13 goals in 48 games. That was a 20-goal pace when he was shut down in late January to have surgery.

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It was a promising start for him in Vancouver after suffering a pair of serious wrist injuries over the previous three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He suffered a terrifying cut to his wrist in his first season in Toronto, which ended his season early. His second season was only so-so, but in his third campaign in the Big Smoke, he managed 21 goals in 53 games. And that was after he broke his wrist late in training camp.

There were big hopes here in Vancouver. And even with the injury, his first year in Vancouver was reasonable.

It’s his second season that is truly worrying. In the first half his skating was nothing close to what he had managed even with the damaged knee, but he did find much of his old speed by the end of the season. But as the season wore on his scoring touch seemed to evaporate. The question now is, can it come back?

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It would seem the Canucks aren’t interested in finding out if they don’t have to.

But his current salary and his lack of production are surely the main reasons the Canucks are struggling to find a trade fit. It’s hard to imagine the Canucks would be able to find a trade partner who doesn’t want a sweetener as part of the deal, either the Canucks retaining salary or including a draft pick as part of the deal. The problem, of course, is the Canucks don’t have many picks in this year’s draft.

Yes, sometimes agents can make a move happen in a way the team hasn’t been able to make happen, but more often than not, all they find out is the same thing the team did: there are few, if any, takers out there.

Just ask Conor Garland and Brock Boeser, the last two Canucks to have their agents get involved in brokering a deal out of town. Both their agents failed to find a new home for their players in 2023 — but, of course, in the end the Canucks and the players benefited, as both players found new energy in Vancouver this past season and posted career-defining seasons.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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