A huge trade happened on Wednesday night, and it is going to give an underwhelming player an opportunity for a fresh start.
The Vancouver Canucks acquired Elias Lindholm from the Calgary Flames. Along with two picks and a couple of prospects, the big piece going the other way was forward Andrei Kuzmenko.
It has been a rough year for Kuzmenko. After capturing everyone’s attention with a 74-point rookie season last year, the Russian-born winger has struggled to find the same success, and it has drawn drawn criticism from both fans and the coaching staff in Vancouver. It grew to the point that Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet made Kuzmenko a healthy scratch a few times this season.
However, with a new team, Kuzmenko might get the needed jolt to get his production back on track. In the first year of a two-year contract, with an AAV of $5.5 million, the former CSKA Moscow product has just eight goals and 13 assists in 43 games. In 124 NHL games, Kuzmenko has posted 47 goals and 48 assists.
On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss how the change of scenery can help Kuzmenko.
Frank Seravalli: [The Flames] needed some NHL-ready pieces. They have that in Kuzmenko, who last year was one goal away from 40 goals and 75 points. This year, he has been a square peg in a round hole in Vancouver. Talking to some of the principles involved, there was a part of this deal where they had to convince Kuzmenko, not only was he going to get an opportunity, but we’re going to put [him] with some good players, and you can possibly thrive. [The Flames] have gotten a nice mix of futures as well as players…that you can either have those players come in and produce for you, or you can flip them later into something else.
You can watch the entire segment, and the full episode here…
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