11:52 p.m.: The trade was later made official by both clubs, although Seravalli’s report indicating the second-round pick heading from Vancouver to Chicago is in 2025 was inaccurate. It’s a 2027 pick, per the teams.
9:14 p.m.: In what has become a rollercoaster of trade, the Chicago Blackhawks are expected to acquire Ilya Mikheyev, the rights to Sam Lafferty, and a second-round pick in 2025 from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2027. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed Mikheyev waived his M-NTC to facilitate a deal with the Blackhawks. The deal will shed $4.75MM off the books for the Canucks as they look to retain several pending free agents and bring their expected cap space up to $19MM heading into the offseason.
Much like their acquisition of Jason Dickinson nearly two years ago, the Blackhawks have once again weaponized their cap space to acquire a reclamation project from the Canucks organization. Assuming Chicago can sign Lafferty to an extension — the Blackhawks dramatically improve their bottom six for the cost of a fourth-round pick in a draft three years away.
After becoming disgruntled with the Maple Leafs organization, Mikheyev signed a four-year, $19MM contract in Vancouver during the summer of 2022. Unfortunately, during his first preseason game with the Canucks, Mikheyev tore his anterior cruciate ligament but was courageously able to return rather quickly from the injury on October 18th. Mikheyev provided solid secondary contributions the rest of the way for the Canucks by way of scoring 13 goals and 28 points in 43 games before Vancouver finally shut him down for the season in late January.
This past offseason, Mikheyev underwent surgery to repair the injury and would not make his season debut until October 21st. Starting hot out of the gates, Mikheyev put up nine goals and 16 points through his first 25 games of the regular season but could only manage two goals and 15 points over the last 53 contests. In Chicago, Mikheyev will have access to much more playing time which will give him more than enough opportunity to put his career back on a positive trajectory.
If the Blackhawks can sign Lafferty before he hits the open market on July 1st, it will be his second stint with the organization. During the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, Lafferty spent 97 games in Chicago where the team saw him put up 15 goals and 32 points. Lafferty was originally acquired by the Blackhawks organization from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Alexander Nylander before the team shipped him off to the Maple Leafs in the deal that also saw Jake McCabe head to Toronto.
This past season in Vancouver, Lafferty was one of the most reliable bottom-six forwards in the league as he scored 13 goals and 24 points in 73 games while averaging just under 12 minutes of ice time per night. He will likely serve in a similar role with Chicago but he may be able to sneak into the team’s second-line on occasion.
The deal opens up a lot of possibilities for the Canucks, as they were able to offload $4.75MM in salary for a second-round pick only a day after the Detroit Red Wings attached a second-round pick to shed $3.4MM off their books. Vancouver may not be done yet in what is shaping up to be an aggressive offseason for the organization as they look to capitalize on an impressive 2023-24 season.
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff was the first to report the full trade package.
Seravalli was the first to report which year the draft picks were attributed to.
I guess it’s a good deal for the Hawks, if Mikheyev can have a solid season around. Also adding a 2025 2nd helps add more assets
If soup can turn it around they could trade him half retained for a good amount
Looks like they changed the pick to a ‘27 2nd rounder. Makes some sense since the Hawks already have two 2nd round picks in ‘24 and ‘25. And then three 2nd round picks in ‘26.
How the heck does a player like Ilya freakin Mikheyev get a NTC in the first place?
@Rollie’s Mustache — I was hoping we could pin this one on J. Benning, but, alas, it falls on Allvin (if we can still believe CapFriendly). Obviously, he didn’t listen to Simon, Theodore, or even Dave.
He has Milstein as his agent. He is not at Scott Boras levels, but Milstein seems to be adept at wrangling crazy contracts for his guys
This is literally a guarenteed trade win for the Hawks…. even if both players bomb (or dont even sign) a 4th becomes a 2nd. Good move no matter what happens with the players.
Or Canucks sign Guentz and win a cup
Maybe that’s a win over a 2nd?
Just literally a hypothetical
Didnt say the Nucks cpuldnt win too! Just that there is literally zero fownside for the Hawks
You said literal guaranteed win for the Hawks
Hawks could also finish last again. I guess that’s a win
He actually wrote, “literal guaranteed trade win”. If you’re gonna troll or be that guy who takes things literally…at least get it right.
Lafferty is excellent on the PK and la solid 3 or 4 C. I don’t know much about the Russian so even if they don’t use him it gets them closer to the floor anyway I guess. Davidson has proven once again he’s good at acquiring assets. Let’s see if he can get assets that can play now. Gives them more trade material anyway. I can’t wait until Friday.
Mikheyev can fly, but he has stone hands.
Wonder how much of his stone hands are due to wrist almost being cut off a few years ago
So that means he’s Lukas Reichel 2.0. We already have one of those. I still say the Hawks need to move him while he might have some value.
Does this mean they won’t have to pay a washed up veteran $4mm a year now ?
Mikheyev is orders of magnitude better than Reichel.
I can get Chicago to the floor with one move take Panarin to play with Berard.. frees up 11.6 for Rangers everyone happy
Works for me. Who’s Berard?