The Vancouver Canucks have reportedly entered into the sweepstakes regarding a young player in the East.

According to Daily Faceoff Insider David Pagnotta, the Canucks are interested in acquiring Washington Capitals forward Ivan Miroshnichenko:

“Vancouver’s in on this one?” Jeff Marek asked Pagnotta on the latest episode of DFO Insider. To which Pagnotta replied, “They are.”

“A lot of teams out West … Vancouver, Seattle, LA, Calgary, I think are among the teams that are poking around on him to try to see if they can make something work.”

Miroshnichenko is a 22-year-old Russian winger who has struggled to get consistent ice time in the NHL. Suiting up in three of the Capitals’ 11 games this season, Miroshnichenko has one goal to show for it, while averaging 11:03 minutes per game.

The 20th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft has been a consistent American League scorer since coming overseas for the 2023-24 season. In 141 AHL games with the Hershey Bears, Miroshnichenko has 46 goals and 55 assists for 101 points with a plus-15 rating. He has added six goals and eight assists for 14 points in 55 career NHL games.

The 6’1″ winger is ready to become an NHL regular; there just isn’t room for him anymore in Washington, after the Capitals brought in Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, and Boone Jenner over the offseason. Based on his view of the league, Miroshnichenko was certainly going to get claimed had he hit NHL waivers, so the Capitals have just let him sit in the press box rather than lose him for nothing.

Pagnotta and Marek discuss that the price for Miroshnichenko may be a little more expensive than what we’ve seen players in these situations typically get traded for. The two mention Egor Chinakhov, a player Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman cited on 32 Thoughts – The Podcast, as a comparable.

The Blue Jackets traded Chinakhov to the Penguins for a second- and third-round pick. However, Miroshnichenko’s situation is very different from Chinakov’s.

Chinakhov had plenty of opportunities to succeed in Columbus but couldn’t gain traction. This made him a bit of a distressed asset and thus lowered his price tag. Miroshnichenko, on the other hand, simply can’t get into the lineup every night because of the logjam ahead of him at forward. He hasn’t played the 202 NHL games Chinakhov did to prove himself, so Pagnotta thinks Miroshnichenko’s price tag is higher and that the Canucks may be motivated to act fast to get ahead of the competition.

“I can certainly see Vancouver trying to get to the finish line on this one with so much competition out there.”

You can watch the full episode below, with the Miroshnichenko segment coming at the 25-minute mark.