Blackhawks take issue with Ilya Mikheyev’s status – Hockey Writers – Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks general manager (GM) Kyle Davidson made a fuss about one of the few free agents the Blackhawks have on the table this summer, and the mismanagement goes back to this past trade deadline.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and several others have partially reported that the Blackhawks have made Ilya Mikheyev’s signing rights available for a trade.
That report was strange to me because you rarely see the signing rights of unrestricted free agents (UFAs) traded. Generally, the point is that the team acquiring the player is able to give them an extra year that they can’t get on the open market from teams that don’t own the rights to them.
Teams could offer free agents up to eight years, while teams on the open market could only offer seven-year deals. Now the rules have changed, and both goals have been reduced by a year.
Another thought process behind trading UFA signing rights is that it gives you the ability to negotiate with them before they have a chance to talk to other teams in free agency. We saw the Toronto Maple Leafs make an agreement with the Dallas Stars on June 29, 2024, regarding the rights of Chris Tanev.
That deal was a 2026 seventh-round pick and Max Ellis, who has never played an NHL game and is currently in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
The reason for making that trade is to give everyone an understanding of what the rights are worth, and if the team makes a trade for Mikheyev, it won’t be because they want to give him a seven-year deal. It could be negotiating a contract before working for free.
Davidson’s mismanagement
Now that I’ve outlined what they can get for Mikheyev’s rights and why the team would trade him, I’ll go into how Davidson has executed this situation badly.
Mikheyev was a player that I mentioned could be moved at this past trade deadline in an article just before the deadline. Finally, I reconsidered and wrote another article saying the Blackhawks should hang on to him. The problem with that is that I thought a deal with Mikheyev would be an easy move because the fit was so good.
With contract negotiations not really going anywhere during the offseason and getting worse now, Davidson missed out on an opportunity to acquire some major veteran assets on an expiring deal.
Davidson had a great trade deadline, moving on from Connor Murphy, Jason Dickinson, Colton Dach and Nick Foligno, but now we’re in a situation where Mikheyev will be leaving with very little stock.
Mikheyev was also a big part of the team this past season. Head coach Jeff Blashill played him in every situation, and he was great defensively for a young team, full of forwards whose weakness is on defense. Mikheyev also set a career high with 36 points in 77 games this season.
That will be the team’s heaviest loss on the ice, but Davidson and the Blackhawks have also created a headache for the league.
After the Blackhawks made it known that Mikheyev was available for a trade, Friedman reported that the NHL was very unhappy with how the Blackhawks were going about buying out his rights.
This led the league to issue a memo warning league teams in detail about cheating. The memo says fines could be up to $5 million if the league finds a team guilty of fraud.
I love it when teams push the rules and try to gain advantages, but this seems incredibly sloppy for Davidson. They do not find Mikheyev’s property; it appears that contract negotiations have gone awry, and now the league is eyeing the Blackhawks.
In a summer when Chicago was trying to lock in the face of its franchise in Connor Bedard, the front office made a mess of asset management and gave itself a headache due to an unforced error.
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