Blackhawks cutting ties with one of their top scorers.

The Chicago Blackhawks appear to be poised to part ways with one of their leading scorers from this past season.

On Monday, news broke that the Blackhawks were actively seeking to trade the rights of pending unrestricted free agent Ilya Mikheyev, a clear indication that a contract between the two sides is not expected to get done before July 1st when Free Agency officially begins.

The news was first reported by NHL insider Elliotte Friedman and has since been echoed by Blackhawks reporter Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times.

Losing Mikheyev will represent a significant loss for the Blackhawks offense as I mentioned he was among the team's best offensive weapons this season. Mikheyev was the team's third leading scorer with 18 goals this season behind only Tyler Bertuzzi (32) and Connor Bedard (30) and his 36 points on the season were good enough for 4th on the Blackhawks once again behind Connor Bedard (75) and Tyler Bertuzzi (58) as well as Frank Nazar (41).

It sounds like Mikheyev is seeking a big contract as a free agent and I can hardly blame him given that this will be his first chance to truly earn a significant contract in the NHL. Mikheyev is currently in the final year of a 4 year deal that carried an average annual value and salary cap hit of $4.75 million, but is likely seeking an even richer contract this time around.

With so few talented forwards hitting free agency this summer, he may very well get what he is looking for.