Ilya Mikheyev is still three to four weeks from being 100% percent healthy and it’s not a certainty that he plays in preseason games, according to Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team.

“He’s in Vancouver, he’s skating, he’s going to take part in training camp,” said Dhaliwal. “I’m not sure right now if preseason games are on the menu for Ilya Mkiheyev. His agent Dan Milstein told me this morning Mikeheyev’s close, but still three to four weeks from being 100%. Milstein’s preaching patience with MIkheyev, he’ll be at camp, I don’t know if preseason games are on the docket for him, but he should be there for the regular season.”

Mikheyev was shut down in late January in order to take care of an 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.

As we previously wrote about, Mikheyev skated for the first time since his surgery on July 28th. Dhaliwal went on to say Mikheyev’s target return date is the Canucks’ home and season opener on October 11th, when they welcome Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers to town.

Mikheyev made a name for himself as one of the league’s speedsters during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and signed with the Canucks last summer as a free agency. Mikheyev said his ACL injury certainly affected his speed in his first season as a Canuck, yet he still seemed like one of the fastest Canucks on most nights. It will be interesting to see how fast Mikheyev is upon returning.

Canucks training camp kicks off on September 20th from the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, BC.