The big Russian winger brings speed, penalty kill and goal scoring to the Canucks.
The Vancouver Canucks weren’t as quiet as they were expected to be on the first day of free agency. They may not have been involved with any of the big names, but they managed to nab a medium-sized name, signing Ilya Mikheev to a four-year deal.
Mikheev’s contract has a cap hit of $4.75 million, which is slightly more than most expected the Canucks to spend. But there’s a lot to like about Mikheev’s game, and it’s intriguing to speculate where he might fit in.
The name of Mikheev’s game is speed. He’s legitimately one of the fastest skaters in the NHL and combines a 6’2″ frame with a willingness to shoot and fight for pucks. It all combines to make him a nightmare to play against – when he’s not first in a puck, he rolls a check and steals it anyway.
Mikheev’s speed and strong two-way game make him a powerful puck-handler — he constantly pushes the puck in the right direction, as illustrated by his HockeyViz heat map.
Along with his outstanding possession play at 5-on-5, Mikheev is an effective penalty killer, using his speed and long reach at the top of the zone to disrupt passing lanes. That speed also makes him a threat to score without players – he had four goals without players last season.
The speed and penalty kill are an immediate upgrade for the Canucks next season. The question is, what else can Mikheev bring?
The only setback against Mikheev in previous years was the lack of a final. He played up and down the lineup with his complementary play and created all kinds of chances with his rush, but he just couldn’t put those chances on net.
That changed last season, when Mikheev exploded with 21 goals in just 53 games.
That’s a 32-goal pace in 82 games after missing several months to start the season with a broken thumb. Landing a potential 30-goal scorer for just $4.75 million, especially one who plays a dominant game and can kill penalties, sounds like a coup for the Canucks.
However, there are some caveats. Mikheev had a career-high 14.3% shooting percentage this past season – nearly eight points higher than his shooting percentage the previous year. Has he made any big adjustments to improve his hitting, or has he had a lot more luck this season compared to last? Can the Canucks expect Mikheev to score goals at the same rate next season as he did with the Leafs?
Maybe not, but even if he doesn’t, Mikheev is a very useful player. It will be the engine of whatever line lands. The addition of Mikheev gives the Canucks some strong depth on the wings, suggesting more of a top-9 configuration than the top-6, bottom-six lineup the Canucks typically employ.
Mikheev is also, by all accounts, an incredibly friendly guy with a fun personality off the ice. He turned his love of soup into a nickname – The Soupman – and an advertisement for Campbell’s Soup. Combining this with his style of play on the ice, he is sure to quickly become a fan favorite.
He also joins two other Russians from the Canucks in Vasily Podkolzin and Andrey Kuzmenko. With just a few moves, the Canucks have become a destination for Russian free agents. This could pay dividends down the road.
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