Ilya Mikheyev (1-year, $925K)
It is unfortunate that Mikheyev is going to miss significant time after his wrist was cut by Jesper Bratt in Friday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
Prior to the injury, he has been a revelation for the Leafs in more ways than one.
He was 8th on the team in scoring with 23 points, along with 8 goals and 15 assists. His numbers at even strength are also impressive, recording a 53.09 CF%, a 52.43 FF%, a 55.33 xGF%, and a 52.71 SCF%.
Early on, Mikheyev was given penalty-killing duties and was able to use his reach and speed to be a dangerous player shorthanded.
His confidence in past games was noticeably growing and moved up and down the lineup with success each step of the way.
(All stats unless otherwise noted are from Hockey-Reference.com and Natural Stat Trick as of December 28th.
All salary numbers are from Cap Friendly.)
While his absence for the next three months is going to sting for the Toronto Maple Leafs, there’s no doubt that Mikheyev has proven he is a useful asset in all situations and will surely get a large pay increase this summer.
Here’s hoping he can make a speedy recovering and return to the lineup before the end of the regular season.
Honourable Mentions: Trevor Moore (2-years, $775 K), Dmytro Timashov (1-year, $694,444)