Sekeres and Price: Rick Dhaliwal on the Sekeres and Price show last week talking about Vancouver Canucks pending UFA Andrei Kuzmenko.
Dhaliwal: “Kuzmenko.”
Sekeres: “Money bags. You had money bags on your show. Milstein, and he says he doesn’t want to talk until after the year, which pretty much means for the Canucks, if they’re not on a playoff spot, I guess they’re going to have to trade Kuzmenko at the deadline if he’s unwilling to ”
Dhaliwal: “Well, they may or may not Matty. Here’s what I know. Milstein was in Vancouver last week to meet with his Vancouver clients – Kuzmenko, Mikheyev and Klimovich.
He did not meet with general manager Patrik Allvin about the Kuzmenko contract. He told us on Donnie and Dhali that he’ll most likely wait until the end of the year to talk contract.
It is impossible right now guys to put a money number on Kuzmenko. Two weeks ago this guy was a healthy scratch. So the price, he was the price. His price was half of what it was today, it is today.
The Canucks can sign Kuzmenko on January 1st but that would only be 34 games in the season. Milstein needs more time to judge what a contract would look like. 50 to 60 points would get him, we’re spitballing, I know you asked Darren Dreger. But 50 to 60 points would get him $4 to $5 million. Anything over 60-65 points could be tough for the Canucks to sign him.
Milstein’s not going to settle for a one-year deal. Let’s be honest guys. Probably going to want term. In fact, anywhere two years and up.
Here’s the kicker. So I asked him, the Vancouver Canucks aren’t going to sit here at the trading deadline and wait to talk to this guy. They’re going to want to know on March 3rd at the trading deadline or beforehand, you know, hey, what’s going on here.
The trading deadline, the Canucks are going to play their 59th game. I would suggest to both of you, at the 59-game mark you got a pretty good idea what Kuzmenko’s worth. The Canucks may want to know from Milstein, a week or two before that. Just a vague idea in general.
But I don’t think the Vancouver Canucks are going to go into the trading deadline not knowing what Kuzmenko’s contract would look like and adjust accordingly. But if he’s asking for too much, are you in the same boat as Horvat? You got to move Kuzmenko.”
Harman Dayal of The Athletic: The Vancouver Canucks are going to have to make a decision on Kuzmenko. He’s been a good fit for the Canucks but it’s hard to gauge his contract value.
Kuzmenko also needs to show that he can play with players not named Elias Pettersson.