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Canucks sign former Leafs winger Ilya Mikheyev to 4-year deal

arun srinivasan
Contributing Writer
·1 min read
Ilya Mikheyev will join the Canucks after spending the past three seasons with the Maple Leafs. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Ilya Mikheyev will join the Canucks after spending the past three seasons with the Maple Leafs. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The Vancouver Canucks signed forward Ilya Mikheyev to a four-year contract worth an average annual value of $4.75M, the team announced Wednesday.

Vancouver did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but they were first confirmed by Mikheyev’s agent, Dan Milstein.

The price point for Mikheyev was too rich for the cap-strapped Maple Leafs as the Canucks are likely paying for the best version of the 27-year-old winger. Mikheyev is an excellent skater and can be deployed in all situations, and is perhaps best known for utilizing his speed in penalty kill scenarios to create havoc, notching four short-handed markers during the 2021-22 season.

Mikheyev is coming off a career-best season where he posted 21 goals and 32 points in 53 games for the Maple Leafs, and will be relied upon to generate consistent secondary scoring for a Canucks team in flux. As the roster currently stands, Mikheyev projects into the Canucks’ top-six but because of his defensive acumen, it wouldn’t be a total shock if he is initially used as a checking-line winger.

This wasn’t the only move from the opening hours of free agency, as the Canucks also inked forward Curtis Lazar to a three-year deal.

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