Jump to content

What to do with Mikheyev? Where does he fit?


mmkk

Recommended Posts

Mik is a reliably great pker, backchecker, forechecker and puck retrieval guy despite not operating at full speed this year.  But he's paid about double what you'd hope for those attributes.  The chemistry between him, Petey and Kuzmenko was way off this year so his scoring is similarly down.  Plenty of blame to go around there but at a minimum it shows that he's strictly a complementary piece offensively.  Ergo he's paid way too much.  I'd move him for picks at the earliest opportunity, should there be one. 

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/1/2024 at 3:43 AM, Miss Korea said:

 

Mikheyev is definitely not deadweight.  He is an excellent two-way forward whose checking ability has been utilized in both even strength situations and on the penalty kill.  He is so reliable you often see him feature in that 2nd PP unit (that gets 20 seconds of icetime before going off).

 

I can't say specifically which line Mik belongs on, but I can say with certainty that he belongs on a team coached by Rick Tocchet.  He is exactly the type of player Tocchet likes and that's why he's been getting so much playing time.  For what it's worth, he's scored at a similar clip from last year, despite having recovered from ACL reconstruction surgery and missed all of training camp.  I also don't think he's missed a single game since his return.

 

image.png.3a1caba74c0b0b0ee7bd238104101cb1.png

 

For 5 million per year he has sucked this year. I hope he finds his game or Jim gets rid of him for a tougher player for the playoffs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, The Lock said:

If Mik is the biggest question on our minds... we must be running out of problems to discuss. lol

We could call them The Goat Line.

 

Petey and Lindy are GOATS in their respective styles of play, and Mikheyev is the Canucks' new scape goat. 

  • Haha 3
  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Mac said:

 

For 5 million per year he has sucked this year. I hope he finds his game or Jim gets rid of him for a tougher player for the playoffs.

He plays too solid of a 200ft game to have sucked this year, his offensive numbers need to pick up but overall he's not that big of an issue. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Maniwaki Canuck said:

Mik is a reliably great pker, backchecker, forechecker and puck retrieval guy despite not operating at full speed this year.  But he's paid about double what you'd hope for those attributes.  The chemistry between him, Petey and Kuzmenko was way off this year so his scoring is similarly down.  Plenty of blame to go around there but at a minimum it shows that he's strictly a complementary piece offensively.  Ergo he's paid way too much.  I'd move him for picks at the earliest opportunity, should there be one. 

 

I think Mikheyev can excel if he's strictly the 3rd option on a line and i agree with your assessment. As you say he's a fore/back checker and puck retriever

 

Petey and Kuzmenko never got it going together this year but if Lindholm and Petey can gel than Mikheyev could be a great complimentary piece that goes to the front of the net and is F1 on the forecheck to help gain possesion.

 

I still think he's not 100%, he is no where near as fast as he was with the leafs.... just look at videos of him on youtube when he was with the leafs the guy could be considered one of the, if not the fastest, skater in the NHL. If he can regain his strength and skating in time he'll look much better and he will be a weapon on the PK

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, bh90 said:

 

I think Mikheyev can excel if he's strictly the 3rd option on a line and i agree with your assessment. As you say he's a fore/back checker and puck retriever

 

Petey and Kuzmenko never got it going together this year but if Lindholm and Petey can gel than Mikheyev could be a great complimentary piece that goes to the front of the net and is F1 on the forecheck to help gain possesion.

 

I still think he's not 100%, he is no where near as fast as he was with the leafs.... just look at videos of him on youtube when he was with the leafs the guy could be considered one of the, if not the fastest, skater in the NHL. If he can regain his strength and skating in time he'll look much better and he will be a weapon on the PK

 check him out at the 2:50 mark how quickly he gets to top speed and just blows by PK Subban, a 99th percentile skater himself.

 

We just have not seen him do anything close to this with the Canucks

 

With Lindholm and Petey's ability to  intercept passes and spring guys open off the rush, in theory Mikheyev should be a great complimentary winger for them off the rush, and a great zone player too as he is good at winning board battles.

 

 

Edited by bh90
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure why anyone would complain about Mik

He is doing his job and why the team is leading the league in goals and goal differential and still have top scoring forwards whom are at the allstar game

You cannot have a team of just scorers and RT likes him for good reason

A player does not have to score to be a big part of the team

BTW when i had torn my acl it hurt to walk for over a year and he is power skating and not not just walking

Anyways he is providing a role for the team and doing it well hurting or not !

  • Vintage 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, bh90 said:

 check him out at the 2:50 mark how quickly he gets to top speed and just blows by PK Subban, a 99th percentile skater himself.

 

We just have not seen him do anything close to this with the Canucks

 

With Lindholm and Petey's ability to  intercept passes and spring guys open off the rush, in theory Mikheyev should be a great complimentary winger for them off the rush, and a great zone player too as he is good at winning board battles.

 

 

 

I'm not sure how many breakaways he's had this year but I definitely recall a few.  He just didn't convert on them.  His ability to generate offence has been fairly consistent over his career.  I do think he's slowed down a bit but he has the skillset needed to put pressure on the defence and them generate their own chances off the counterattack/o-zone pressure. 

 

It is surprising to see how many Leafs goals he scored in front of the net.  In that aspect he is like Elias Pettersson, who actually rarely scores from distance anymore.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Ballisticsports said:

Not sure why anyone would complain about Mik

He is doing his job and why the team is leading the league in goals and goal differential and still have top scoring forwards whom are at the allstar game

You cannot have a team of just scorers and RT likes him for good reason

A player does not have to score to be a big part of the team

BTW when i had torn my acl it hurt to walk for over a year and he is power skating and not not just walking

Anyways he is providing a role for the team and doing it well hurting or not !

We will always have those other clubs’ fans coming here to fish. We will win the Cup this spring and there will be those fraud fans who complain about something. But that’s all good because we will be celebrating a Cup! 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Miller - Lindholm - Boeser (no real weakness here, can play physical, snipe, two-way game...)
Hoglander - Petey - Mikheyev (give Petey two fast, aggressive wingers to playmake for and they should be a dangerous two-way line off the rush)
Joshua - Blueger - Garland (don't fix what isn't broken)
Aman - Suter - Lafferty (Suter's been hot with Miller and Boeser but we can stash him as capable two-way depth, with two gritty wingers)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mikheyev is definitely down in terms of numbers but he still has big time value. I hope he picks the pace back up offensively, but his two way ability is such a massive benefit. I wouldn’t do anything in season to change anything. Hopefully he gets a spark with Lindholm. 
 

This offseason is going to suck because it’s hard to see any scenario that allows us to keep both him and Garland. But Garland has been amazing and needs to stay. Garland may have the most incredible takeaway to giveaway ratio I’ve ever seen and his puck possession numbers are sensational. 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Alflives said:

Mik fits in any line and in any role. He’s a fabulous player. Super smart signing by our great management team. 

Mik is a suckaroo. Not even an NHLer. Suckaroo bustaroo....

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/1/2024 at 3:43 AM, Miss Korea said:

 

Mikheyev is definitely not deadweight.  He is an excellent two-way forward whose checking ability has been utilized in both even strength situations and on the penalty kill.  He is so reliable you often see him feature in that 2nd PP unit (that gets 20 seconds of icetime before going off).

 

I can't say specifically which line Mik belongs on, but I can say with certainty that he belongs on a team coached by Rick Tocchet.  He is exactly the type of player Tocchet likes and that's why he's been getting so much playing time.  For what it's worth, he's scored at a similar clip from last year, despite having recovered from ACL reconstruction surgery and missed all of training camp.  I also don't think he's missed a single game since his return.

 

image.png.3a1caba74c0b0b0ee7bd238104101cb1.png

Not overly sold on Mikheyev because I don't find him particularly noticeable.  However, if you are suggesting that he's an excellent 2-way forward, one has to ask if this lineup would work well with the second line shutting down the other team's top lines.  EP and Hogs could be interchanged fairly easily to mix in the lotto line here and there. The top line lacks a second FO guy though......moving Suter up there helps but then you lose a 4th line FO guy.  Writing this out makes me realize how much the Canucks need better FO guys / development.  Getting Lindholm is huge from this perspective.  

 

Hoglander - Miller - Boeser
Petterson - Lindholm - Mikheyev
Joshua - Blueger - Garland
PDG (soon) - Suter - Lafferty
Aman

 

Hughes - Hronek
Zadorov - Myers
Cole - Juulsen

 

Demko
DeSmith

 

Perhaps the cheapest approach would be to pick up a good 4th line center so Suter can stay up on the first line.  Seems a waste having Hoglander on the fourth line though.

Edited by NHL97OneTimer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can’t believe people are saying he’s down in his numbers. What numbers? Oh you mean the whopping 32 points (career high) he’s put up in Toronto? 
I like the guy as a defensive forward because that’s all he is. If he was paid 2-3 million a year I would have no beef with him. But for 5 million a year the player has to put up points. 
He would make an excellent third line player at about 3 million.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that we've got Lindholm, I think my preference would be to slide Mikeyev down to the 4th line and put Hoglander up on the 2nd. 

 

We'll have to see what works. I like it that this trade happened early enough to figure that stuff out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, WiDeN said:

Now that we've got Lindholm, I think my preference would be to slide Mikeyev down to the 4th line and put Hoglander up on the 2nd. 

 

We'll have to see what works. I like it that this trade happened early enough to figure that stuff out. 

That's a high profile player for a fourth line. His agent would be in touch with Patrick mighty quick. Maybe a trade at some point.

  I too believe Hogalander should be in the mix for second line work. Toc's got him playing fantastic!

  • Vintage 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...