Report: Canucks are experiencing difficulties in efforts to trade Ilya Mikheyev

It is common knowledge that the Vancouver Canucks are in a pressurized offseason. No one expected the team to perform as well as it did this season. The pressure and visibility are on Jack Adams Award-winning Coach Rick Tocchet and the 2023-2024 Pacific Division champions to build upon their success while dealing with a laundry list of soon-to-be free agents as of July 1.

One of the players the Canucks have been trying to trade, as far back as the trade deadline in March, is forward Ilya Mikheyev. Mikheyev, 29, played the past two seasons for the Canucks. He is halfway through his four-year $19 million contract signed in July 2022. Since arriving in Vancouver, Mikheyev tore his ACL and had surgery in January 2023. He played 78 regular season and 11 postseason games during the 2023-2024 season. He did not score a single point in the Canucks playoff run.

While the Canucks are trying to free up money to sign some of the free agents using Mikheyev as a trade candidate, the team is running into issues with this strategy.

What is the sticking point in a potential Ilya Mikheyev trade?

Teams reportedly do not want to trade for just Mikheyev; they want the Canucks to attach another player to the deal which is something Vancouver is resisting.

Dakota Joshua, Tyler Myers, Flip Hronek, Elias Pettersson, and Nikita Zadorov. are among the big names that may not be on the Canucks roster when the season opens this fall if they become free agents.

CapFriendly lists the Canucks as the team as having the seventh-highest amount of cap space in the NHL with $24 million available out of the total 2024 cap amount of $88 million.

It is difficult to predict how the Canucks will approach the coming weeks leading up to the July 1 deadline, or if the team has a priority list of which of the 11 free agents must be signed for 2024. Who do you think the Canucks must re-sign to make another playoff run in 2024?