On Wednesday, Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said that Ilya Mikheyev would be on the ice at training camp, albeit in a non-contact jersey in Group C with the players presumed to be heading to the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL or back to junior hockey.
"Ilya has done a tremendous job this offseason in his rehab," said Allvin, suggesting that he's not far from skating with the making group and playing games for the Canucks.
On Thursday, Allvin announced that Mikheyev has left Canucks training camp for "personal reasons." According to ChekTV's Rick Dhaliwal, those reasons are related to family and he has not had a setback to his injury.
Mikheyev hasn't played a game for the Canucks since January 27 when the team shut him down for the season for surgery on a torn ACL. His timeline for a return was still right around the start of the regular season on October 11.
In a tweet after his final game, Mikheyev explained the timing of the surgery, saying, "If I continued to play, I wouldn’t be ready for training camp."
According to Dan Milstein, Mikheyev's agent, this is not a "serious" situation and Mikheyev will return to camp soon.
