{"id":704518,"date":"2026-05-30T21:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704518\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T21:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:11:09","slug":"nhl-issues-tampering-memo-amid-ilya-mikheyev-speculation-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704518\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Issues Tampering Memo Amid Ilya Mikheyev Speculation \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent years, teams have been more open about the idea of allowing players under contract to talk to other teams.\u00a0 Sometimes, it\u2019s to facilitate trades while this season, it eventually yielded some mutual contract terminations as well, allowing players to move for a better opportunity while the former teams received cap relief.<\/p>\n

It appears as if the Blackhawks were hoping that they could take a similar approach with pending UFA winger Ilya Mikheyev<\/a>.\u00a0 Unable to come to terms on a new contract, it was reported earlier this month that his rights were available<\/a> for trade.\u00a0 At the time, there was a belief that they would permit his camp to speak to other teams and if there wasn\u2019t the type of contract out there that he was looking for, then perhaps he\u2019d circle back and rekindle talks with Chicago.<\/p>\n

However, Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman reported on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link<\/a>) that the NHL sent all 32 teams a reminder about tampering rules at this time of year.\u00a0 It specifically indicated that no contact between pending free agents and teams is permitted without a rights trade first.\u00a0 Failure to comply could result in a fine of up to $5MM and\/or the potential loss of draft picks.<\/p>\n

There used to be a pre-July interview window, or a legal tampering period.\u00a0 It allowed potential free agents to speak to teams with the idea of giving players more time to assess their possible options.\u00a0 Some pending free agents even flew into other cities for a more formal discussion while getting a better sense of the area.\u00a0 But that was eventually taken out of the CBA and while it appears the league would like to have it back, the NHLPA isn\u2019t as keen to do so.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the Blackhawks aren\u2019t going to be able to execute their desired plan with Mikheyev as clearly, they can\u2019t allow Mikheyev to speak to other teams about a new deal first.\u00a0 Instead, they\u2019ll have to swing a rights trade if another team thinks they can get a contract done and wants to jump the market.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t as many of those deals now as there once were so unless Mikheyev has a change of heart about his perceived value, there\u2019s a high chance he heads to the open market without Chicago getting any type of compensation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, teams have been more open about the idea of allowing players under contract to talk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[157823,49,48,756,10830,448,82],"class_list":["post-704518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-free-agency","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-ilya-mikheyev","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}