Ilya Mikheyev and Maple Leafs settle on a new contract

Kyle Dubas and Ilya Mikheyev have settled on a new contract only hours before a salary arbitration hearing was scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The #leafs avoid salary arbitration with Ilya Mikheyev. His two-year extension comes with a $1.645M AAV.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) October 20, 2020

The contract is a fair bit bigger in real dollars in year two, which is likely to benefit Mikheyev somewhat thanks to escrow.

Structure :
Year 1, $1.1 M
Year 2, $2.19 M https://t.co/BoimWZd4bx

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 20, 2020

The deal comes in between Mikheyev’s arbitration proposal (one year at $2.7M) and the Leafs (two years at $1M.) It’s hard to know for sure what the Leafs will get from Mikheyev based on his half-season, but he doesn’t need to be much more than competent for this deal to work out. He will be an unrestricted free agent once the deal ends.

Mikheyev put up 23 points in 39 games this past regular season before a hand injury took him out of action. He did appear in the qualifying round but did not get on the scoresheet against Columbus. He would have made a bit of an unusual arbitration case given his small NHL sample. With this night-before settlement, the Leafs are spared the necessity of talking down a player they’ve clearly worked at building a relationship with.

Mikheyev was the only Leafs player to enter the arbitration process this season. The only remaining Leafs Restricted Free Agents still in need of a new contract are defenceman Travis Dermott and winger Joey Anderson, who was acquired from the Devils when they traded away Andreas Johnsson.

How do you feel about this deal?