Canucks F Ilya Mikheyev skates for first time since January, expects to be ready for 2023-24 season

Vancouver Canucks forward Ilya Mikheyev is skating for the first time since he was shut down with an ACL injury this past season, according to a report from Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team.

“For the 1st time since Jan 27th when he was shut down because of knee surgery, Ilya Mikheyev has started skating,” Dhaliwal tweeted. “Agent Dan Milstein : We expect Ilya to be ready for the 2023-24season.”

Mikheyev was shut down in late January in order to take care of the ACL injury that he was able to play through up to that point. Once it became clear that the Canucks wouldn’t be in the playoff hunt the way they’d hoped to be, Mikheyev got his surgery in hopes of being ready to hit the ground running for training camp.

Here’s what we wrote about Mikheyev in our “expectation and goals for every Vancouver Canuck” series, which you can read by clicking here.

“The most impressive thing about Mikheyev’s abbreviated 2022-23 campaign — in which he tallied 13 goals and 15 assists through 46 games — was that the ACL injury that he was playing through was something that affected his skating. Even so, Mikheyev was one of the fastest Canucks on a nightly basis. And while that is certainly an indictment on the much-maligned team speed of the Canucks, it also makes the mind wonder what Mikheyev will be able to accomplish with two legs working the way they’re supposed to.

Mikheyev’s two-way game, speed, forechecking, and penalty killing abilities are sure to make him a player Rick Tocchet trusts with plenty of opportunities, so it’s safe to expect Mikheyev to play a big role in his second of four years with the Canucks. Our expectation is that he remains on the Canucks’ first line and breaks the 20 goal mark with ease.

Mikheyev is almost certainly going to be on the Canucks’ first line alongside Elias Pettersson and countryman Andrei Kuzmenko, as that’s where he played for most of last season while healthy.