Toronto Maple Leafs: What Should a New Contract for Ilya Mikheyev Look Like

With the Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ilya Mikheyev set to become an RFA in the 2020 offseason we ask, what should his new contract look like?

Ilya Mikheyev had himself quite the season in his first year playing in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs as he proved he can play at the NHL level.

We saw him score in his NHL debut, we saw him play on the second line with John Tavares and we saw him end his season short due to an injury.

Now it’s time to discuss what his new contract should and could look like, given he only signed a one year contract out of the KHL just for the 2019-20 season, but before we get into that lets take a look at his stats from this past season.

Ilya Mikheyev’s Stats

Ilya Mikheyev signed a one year contract out of the KHL worth $925K to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he did not disappoint in his first year in the NHL.

2019-20 stats… 39 GP – 8 G – 15 A – 23 PTS (Stats from NHL.com)

Ilya Mikheyev also had a 53.48% CF this year in just under half a season. (Stats from NaturalStatTrick.com)

Although his season got cut short due to the injury he sustained in December against the New Jersey Devils, he had a strong positive impact to the team in the 39 games he did play.

From coming into the NHL for the first time and having an immediate impact to putting up 23 points in his first 39 games in the league is more than any of us would’ve imagined from Ilya Mikheyev.

What Should Mikheyev’s new Contract Look Like?

Mikheyev is due for a new contract and it would only make sense that he returns to the Toronto Maple Leafs instead of leaving the team. (Stats from CapFriendly.com)

Now going back to his 23 points in 39 games played, he was on pace to finish the season with 48 points (17 G – 31 A – 48  PTS)  if he played all 82 games. Now 48 points for a player making $925K in his first year in the NHL is huge, however maybe he would’ve gotten to 50 points or maybe close to 60 if he continued to play on the second line with John Tavares.

I truly think that a reasonable contract for Ilya Mikheyev and the Toronto Maple Leafs should be somewhere around the extension Pierre Engvall got but a bit more.

Pierre Engvall signed for 2 years x $1.25M and I think Ilya Mikheyev should get 2/3 years x 1.75M/$2M.

I also think Ilya Mikheyev is the type of guy to take a pay cut to stay on the team even if the pay cut is like $500K or so. I can also see him signing for as low as $1.5M but he really deserves north of $1.75M in my opinion. Even though he isn’t looked at as a top end player like Matthews and the rest of the bunch, he still has the potential to be a 50 point scorer in this league.

Ilya Mikheyev is important to the Toronto Maple Leafs, he’s in his mid 20s and has already proved that he can play at the NHL level in his first year like I said earlier. With the Toronto Maple Leafs having four forwards making $6.9M or more it is important that the team has cheap depth players that can produce almost as much as the stars or at least produce at a third/fourth liner rate.

Mikheyev also has the capability to play up and down the lineup if necessary, like I said already he’s played on the second line and third line and can easily play on the first line too. His role is similar to a Zach Hyman, he’s the forechecker on the line that retrieves the pucks but he can also score as we’ve seen that he has a really nice shot. He also has good hands and he is pretty speedy for his size too.

With his size and speed he was also a great addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs penalty kill before his injury because of his reach and his tenacity to chase the loose puck as we’ve seen throughout his game play.

Here are two videos of Ilya Mikheyev’s work this past season of bring aggressive, using his reach, and speed to pot two goals home.