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Canucks land coveted free-agent Andrei Kuzmenko & free-agent targets

June 20, 2022, 2:18 PM ET [436 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
I wasn't expecting this news hot off the press on Monday morning.

But according to his Instagram, Andrei Kuzmenko is back in Moscow — where he's 10 hours ahead — and preparing to put pen to paper to sign as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks.



This has been confirmed by Kuzmenko's agent, Dan Milstein, who shepherded his client through a series of in-person team meetings last week.



The signing is a win for the Canucks' new management group. And it was interesting to hear more details of Kuzmenko's tour unfold over the course of last week — including how he met with Bruce Boudreau and Patrik Allvin when he was in Ann Arbor, a few hours away Boudreau's offseason home in St. Catharines, as well as having his in-person visit to Vancouver.



Kuzmenko's transition to Vancouver should be eased by fellow Russian Vasily Podkolzin, his former teammate with SKA St. Petersburg who has already posted a welcome message on his Instagram stories. Podkolzin will also likely appreciate having a fellow countryman around — even after having done such an impressive job of learning English and assimilating with his teammates over the last year.

When Michael Buble was on the Donnie & Dhali show last week, he talked about how the mood around the Canucks has been outstanding since Bruce Boudreau took over.

"We’re lucky man, we got a good ownership team. And we have a good management team," Buble said, per The Daily Hive. "And I can tell you, just facts are that the players are happy man, they’re happy to be here. They want to be here. And I think that change of environment is so good for us as a fan base, because teams, players from other cities hear about that, trust me, this and that gets around. And when the environment is like that, and there’s that kind of support players want to come they want to be part of it."

Kuzmenko's signing appears to prove Buble's point.

Will it also translate when NHL free agency opens on July 13? I don't expect Vancouver to spend big unless they can clear out some cap space first. But Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie & Dhali threw out some names last week that could be targets. Again, according to the Daily Hive, Dhaliwal mentioned forwards Andrew Copp, Ilya Mikheyev and Curtis Lazar.

Copp, of course, is a big, versatile forward who can play all three positions and was a terrific addition for the New York Rangers at the trade deadline. He turns 28 in July and is coming off a one-year deal that carried a cap hit of $3.64 million. A fourth-round pick by the Winnipeg Jets back in 2013, Copp spent three years at the University of Michigan before joining the Jets. He'll be looking for more money, and term, as he reaches UFA status for the first time.

Mikheyev turns 28 in October. He signed as a free agent with Toronto in 2019 and enjoyed three good years in the Leafs' bottom six. He peaked at 21 goals and 32 points this season, which essentially priced him out of Toronto's cap structure. He's coming off a two-year deal that carried a cap hit of $1.645 million per season.

When I think of Russian free agents, I immediately think of the best signing — Artemi Panarin — and arguably one of the worst when the Vegas Golden Knights signed Vadim Shipachyov before their first season, then couldn't find a way to work him into their lineup. After returning to Russian, Shipachyov has continued to be one of the KHL's leading scorers, year after year, but things didn't work out for him in North America.

Mikheyev is a reminder that there are other outcomes in the middle — and that's probably more likely what Vancouver will end up getting from Kuzmenko.

But it's interesting that Mikheyev is also a client of agent Dan Milstein — and I think I saw a report that he and Kuzmenko spent some time together in Florida last week, as Kuzmenko's tour began. Does today's news make Vancouver a potentially more appealing destination for Mikheyev? Can the Canucks afford him as a UFA?

The third man on the list — Salmon Arm's Curtis Lazar. I wrote a bit about him last week. Not sure he'd move the needle much, one way or another.

But speaking of Russians...

We have a new draft ranking list to peruse, as TSN's Director of Scouting Craig Button released his final 'Craig's List' on Monday morning.

At No. 15, where the Canucks are set to pick, Button has smooth-skating Russian winger Ivan Miroshnichenko. Elite Prospects has a nice feature where they consolidate a list of a player's rankings from 14 different outlets. There, we can see that Button's ranking of Miroshnichenko is on the high side. From mid-term to the end of the season, he dropped from No. 8 to No. 11 among European skaters on NHL Central Scouting's list. And he's ranked below No. 15 on eight of the remaining 12 lists.

Button has big defenseman Owen Pickering listed at No. 13; he's a player that could potentially fit Vancouver's needs. And as I've mentioned previously, I like cerebral Austrian centre Marco Kasper, who's on Button's list at No. 17.

He has ranked some of prominent prospects much lower than some of the other lists I've seen. Undersized center Matt Savoie, listed fourth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, is all the way down at No. 19. His fellow Winnipeg Ice centre Connor Geekie, who's 6'4" and listed at No. 5 by Central Scouting, sits at 29.

Draft guru Bob McKenzie is usually the last one to drop his list. When it comes out, it could have some big moves from his mid-season rankings from January. He had Savoie at No. 4 and Miroschnichenko at No. 6 — with Juraj Slafkovsky slotted in between at No. 5.

McKenzie's mid-term rankings have Isaac Howard from the U.S. National Team Development Program at No. 15. He's a smallish winger, listed at just under 5'10", but he did have a strong performance at the recent World U-18 championship, leading his silver-medal-winning team in scoring with six goals and 11 points in six games. But Howard lands at No. 32 on Button's more updated list.

And speaking of TSN — they're broadcasting all games of the 2022 Memorial Cup, which gets underway Monday in Saint John, N.B. after a two-year hiatus.

The four teams in the tournament are the host Saint John Sea Dogs, Hamilton Bulldogs, Shawinigan Cataractes and Edmonton Oil Kings. No Canucks prospects, but many future NHL stars will be in action over the next week.

And finally, we've got Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sportsnet on Monday at 5 p.m. PT. I won't be surprised if Colorado pulls out another win, but we've seen Tampa Bay wiggle out of tough spots before.....
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