Report: Leafs at risk of losing rookie Mikheyev

Things haven’t exactly gone according to plan for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season. The team is currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in and they were forced to fire their long-tenured head coach at the season’s quarter way point. In other words: Things have been better.

The team seems to be on an upswing though and one of the biggest contributors is rookie Ilya Mikheyev. The soup-loving 25 year old from Omsk, Russia is 4th in NHL rookie scoring with six goals and 19 points in 35 games. Mikheyev signed with the Leafs as an unrestricted free agent this past offseason and is slated to become a restricted free agent this upcoming offseason. Because of outside interest and because of the Leafs’ cap crunch though, there’s some concern that the Leafs may not be able to bring Mikheyev back for next season.

NHL insider Pierre LeBrun reports that both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Chicago Blackhawks pushed hard for Mikheyev, as did about 20 other teams, this past offseason. I’d imagine that these same teams will come calling this upcoming offseason should Mikheyev hit the open market again.

Interestingly enough, LeBrun feels that the smartest move is salary arbitration for Mikheyev.

Check it out:

While there’s still a lot of time between now and July 1st, if you’re a Leafs fan you have to feel a little concerned having this kid unsigned. I mean… the Nylander and Marner negotiations didn’t exactly go as planned either…