Yes, we realize we may be traipsing into ‘hear us out’ territory right from the jump here.
But hear us out.
The Vancouver Canucks are looking to add offence to their lineup this summer. One of the ways they will do so is through the free agent market. And the player with the second-most goals in a single season for the Canucks in the past 15 years just so happens to be a UFA.
So, one has to wonder, is a reunion between Andrei Kuzmenko and the Canucks a real possibility this summer?
It’s easy to see why some might immediately scoff at this notion. Kuzmenko’s first tenure with the Canucks didn’t exactly end well.
The Russian winger came out gangbusters in his first season. Though not technically a rookie at age 26, Kuzmenko led all first-year NHLers by a big country mile in 2022/23, notching 39 goals and 74 points in 81 games.
That stat we dropped in the last section isn’t an exaggeration. Kuzmenko’s 39 goals here were tied for the second-most by a Canuck (with Elias Pettersson that same year and behind Brock Boeser’s 40 the year after) since Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler each scored 41 in 2010/11.
And all for the low, low price of a $950K ELC salary and some $850K in performance bonuses.
That led to the Canucks signing Kuzmenko to a two-year, $5.5 million AAV extension.
But then the situation turned south pretty quickly after that ink dried.
Head coach Rick Tocchet was hired partway through Kuzmenko’s initial campaign, and while that didn’t do much to slow Kuzmenko down within that same season, it was clear that the two were not a stylistic fit.
When Kuzmenko arrived at Training Camp 2023 with questionable preparedness after a summer in Bali, the reaction was not good. Kuzmenko got off to a much slower start in 2023/24, then went ice-cold when the new year hit with a 10-game pointless streak. That was the last straw, and Kuzmenko was shipped off to Calgary in early February as part of the return for Elias Lindholm.
It must be mentioned here that, at the time, Kuzmenko’s involvement in the trade was very much as cap ballast, if not as an outright cap dump. Prospect Hunter Brzustewicz and the Canucks’ 2024 first round pick made up the bulk of the valued return for Lindholm. Kuzmenko was seen, at best, as a throw-in with some bounceback potential.
And bounce back he did, at least temporarily. Kuzmenko closed out the 2023/24 season with 14 goals and 25 points in 29 games for the Flames, a scoring rate nearly matching that of the year prior.
But Kuzmenko’s shelf life with Calgary was even shorter than it was with Vancouver. This most recent 2024/25 season saw Kuzmenko get off to an even colder start of just four goals and 15 points through his first 37 games, and that resulted in Kuzmenko being shipped off again.
This time, his destination was Philadelphia, and Kuzmenko was, again, largely included for cap purposes in a swap that involved Jakob Pelletier and picks accompanying him in exchange for Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost.
And once again, a trade seemed to be the shakeup that Kuzmenko needed. He scored five points in seven games with the Flyers before a Trade Deadline 2025 deal sent him to the Los Angeles Kings with 50% retention (and a seventh-round sweetener) in exchange for a third-round pick.
The Kings might not have been expecting too much from Kuzmenko, but they got a lot. Through the final 22 games of the regular season, he scored just five goals but picked up 12 assists for a total of 17 points.
And then, in the playoffs, Kuzmenko was one of the Kings’ best skaters against the Oilers, racking up three goals and three assists in six games before being eliminated.
Now, Kuzmenko is set to become a UFA as of July 1.
The reasons why the Canucks might consider a second tour of Kuzmenko duty are numerous. First and foremost, Tocchet isn’t here anymore, having decided to leave the Canucks for some as-yet-undetermined greener pastures.
Kuzmenko’s inconsistencies in Calgary prove that his up-and-down production wasn’t exclusively a result of a clash with Tocchet. But it was also pretty clear, right from the jump, that Kuzmenko wasn’t a Tocchet-type player.
If the Canucks were to hire a more offensively-dynamic and defensively-forgiving bench boss, it stands to reason that one of the largest issues with Kuzmenko’s time in Vancouver would have been removed from the equation.
It also cannot be ignored that one of the Canucks’ foremost mission statements for 2025/26 (and beyond) is to get the forward Elias Pettersson back on track. And on that front, it cannot be denied that Kuzmenko once brought out the absolute best in Pettersson.
That 2022/23 campaign saw Pettersson score 39 goals of his own as part of 102 points. That year saw Pettersson share some 60+% of his even-strength ice-time alongside Kuzmenko, and even more of his power play time. It was obvious that the two had some real chemistry, even if that chemistry largely evaporated for the start of 2023/24.
A reunion with his old running mate isn’t the worst idea in the world to get Pettersson going again.
In terms of market value, we’d have to imagine that Kuzmenko would be coming in to at least partially replace the contributions of Brock Boeser to the top-six. While the 2025 Free Agent Frenzy will be especially frenzied this year due to the cap ceiling increase, Kuzmenko still doesn’t project as someone who will break the bank. At the very least, we can confidently project that his contract will come in as significantly cheaper than Boeser’s.
As of this writing, Kuzmenko is the 19th highest-scoring UFA forward set to hit the market. That’s not a bad spot to be in, especially this year, but it’s not the kind of territory that will land him elite money. It might be most reasonable to predict that Kuzmenko has to settle for at least a slight salary decrease from the $5.5 million AAV he is coming off of.
Should Kuzmenko continue the roll he got on in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and especially should he be able to rekindle any of that chemistry with Pettersson, it’s hard to imagine the Canucks getting more value out of a UFA in the range of $5 million or less.
Of course, there is considerable risk with a player like this. Kuzmenko hasn’t exactly demonstrated an ability to build off his hot streaks. He also tailed off the last time pretty immediately after signing a new contract extension.
Really, this decision hinges on the new coach. If the Canucks hire another coach in a similar vein to Tocchet, or even one of his direct protegees like Adam Foote, they really shouldn’t spend much time pondering the possibility of Kuzmenko. There just won’t be a fit there.
Hire the coach first, then think about Kuzmenko, should be the order of operation.
It’s also worth wondering whether Kuzmenko would return. The Canucks did dump him fairly unceremoniously a year ago. But by all indications, Kuzmenko greatly enjoyed his time in Vancouver, and his father was recently glimpsed wearing a Canucks t-shirt on social media. Maybe he’s still got a soft spot for the team that gave him his first NHL shot, and maybe he’s willing to give them a second shot in return.
It’s an admittedly out-there idea. But the potential to sign someone who is known to work well with Pettersson, in a season where Pettersson’s performance is key, has to at least be considered.
