Mikheyev quietly playing his way out of Toronto
Prior to the beginning of the season, Ilya Mikheyev asked the Leafs for a trade as he felt he was more of a «spare part» in the Leafs' forward group and believed he could be a top-6 forward given the opportunity. The Leafs did not oblige because they saw «Mickey» as an important piece to that forward group and have worked with him to get him more ice time.
While not in a top-6 role himself, alongside Kampf and Engvall, Mikheyev has helped form one of the best third lines in the league. For the Leafs and their line combinations that have a minimum of 100 minutes played together, the Engvall, Kampf, Mikheyev line has the lowest expected goals against of 1.65/60min, the third highest expected goals for and the lowest expected goals against.
Mikheyev himself, though, is quietly playing his way out of Toronto with his excellent play. He has seen time on the Leafs' second PP unit and has become a top penalty killer, scoring 3 shorthanded goals and in the 51 minutes of PK time he has on the season, the Leafs have outscored their opponents 4-3. Not to mention he is currently on pace for a 31-goal, 43 point season. All this while making $1.645 million this season and due for quite the raise as a UFA. Hopefully Dubas is able to find a way to keep him in the off-season because it will be a huge loss should he leave.
| POLL | ||
MARS 24 | 515 ANSWERS Mikheyev quietly playing his way out of Toronto Will Mikheyev re-sign in Toronto this summer? | ||
| Yes | 189 | 36.7 % |
| No | 281 | 54.6 % |
| Dubas will replace him with someone better | 45 | 8.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
