The Tampa Bay Lightning made their first move roughly an hour into free agency as they signed Ilya Mikheyev to a four-year contract with an Average Annual Value of $3.85 million according to the winger’s agent, Dan Milstein.
The 6’2″, 192 lb. forward scored 18 goals for the Chicago Blackhawks last season while adding 18 assists. In his seven season career he’s posted 98 goals and 103 assists in 427 games.
Season Age Team Pos GP G A PTS +/- PIM EVG PPG SHG SOG SPCT TSA TOI ATOI FOW FOL FO% BLK HIT TAKE GIVE
2019-20 25 TOR F 39 8 15 23 7 4 7 0 1 98 8.2 173 607:28 15:35 3 1 75.0 13 26 24 14
2020-21 26 TOR F 54 7 10 17 5 6 7 0 0 107 6.5 173 767:19 14:13 2 0 100.0 28 49 21 25
2021-22 27 TOR F 53 21 11 32 16 26 13 4 4 147 14.3 205 808:44 15:16 0 2 0.0 18 52 24 26
2022-23 28 VAN F 46 13 15 28 3 2 12 1 0 91 14.3 138 777:58 16:55 2 8 20.0 14 13 12 10
2023-24 29 VAN F 78 11 20 31 1 4 11 0 0 147 7.5 240 1112:36 14:16 8 21 27.6 20 49 19 16
2024-25 30 CHI F 80 20 14 34 4 16 17 0 3 138 14.5 221 1254:09 15:41 1 11 8.3 15 34 21 54
2025-26 31 CHI F 77 18 18 36 2 18 17 0 1 123 14.6 213 1342:20 17:26 2 7 22.2 23 31 22 63
NHL NHL NHL 427 98 103 201 38 76 84 5 9 851 11.5 1363 6670:34 15:37 18 50 26.5 131 254 143 208
NHL NHL NHL 82 19 20 39 7 15 16 1 2 163 11.5 262 1281 15:37 3 10 26.5 25 49 27 40
TOR TOR TOR 146 36 36 72 28 36 27 4 5 352 10.2 551 2183:31 14:57 5 3 62.5 59 127 69 65
CHI CHI CHI 157 38 32 70 6 34 34 0 4 261 14.6 434 2596:29 16:32 3 18 14.3 38 65 43 117
VAN VAN VAN 124 24 35 59 4 6 23 1 0 238 10.1 378 1890:34 15:15 10 29 25.6 34 62 31 26
Provided by “Hockey-Reference.com”
A big forward who has played up and down the line-up at all of his previous stops, Mikheyev will see some time on the penalty kill (9 career short-handed goals) and likely in the bottom-six. He fits what the Lightning like in their forwards, trading high-end offense for responsible play in his own zone.
That being said, it’s not like he’s without any finishing skills at all. He has eclipsed 20 goals twice in his career and had 18 for Chicago last season. The Athletic had him ranked as their 27th best available free agent and projected a three-year deal at about $3.5 million per.
Bolts officially announce the deal:
