Vancouver Canucks officially run out patience with Andrei Kuzmenko, looking to move on

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Liam McCormick
January 5, 2024 (2:38 PM)

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As the Vancouver Canucks took on the St. Louis Blues on the road last night, head coach Rick Tocchet made what's becoming a regular choice in scratching Andrei Kuzmenko. Yesterday was the 5th time in the last 18 games that Kuzmenko has been scratched.

According to multiple reports, this comes as the team has had several sit-down meetings with Kuzmenko about buying into Tocchet's new structure of play, and meeting his expectations of work ethic. Now according to Elliotte Friedman, last night's scratch even came after what was thought to be a positive meeting, indicating that the coach has totally lost patience for Kuzmenko.

On the Donnie and Dhali show in Vancouver today, Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal revealed that Kuzmenko's agent Dan Milstein is actively having meetings with Kuzmenko, and hearing interest from other teams wanting to trade for Kuzmenko. The trouble is the $5.5M cap hit attached to him for this season and next season. Kuzmenko has a high ceiling, shown by his 39 goal season last year, but now simply can't fit with the Canucks, and has lost all his confidence. In 32 games this year, Kuzmenko's scored only 8 goals and 19 points.

Clearly, a change of scenery is needed for Andrei Kuzmenko to even have a chance of returning to the success of last year. However, it's a big risk for a team to trade for him considering his cap hit and small sample of success, especially considering he had a wildly high shooting percentage of 30%. Still, plenty of teams seem interested, and if the financial can be worked out, he could join a new team via trade during this season.