Keith Jones and Daniel Brière have been undoing the misery and turmoil that Chuck Fletcher laid about during his almost-5 year tenure as President and General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. It was truly a desolate landscape that was filled with overpaid contracts, somewhat empty draft cupboard, and a middling pipeline with some great prospects but not much depth.
In just a matter of months, they’ve been undoing several of his mistakes and if this is how things are going to be, then we’re in for a treat. It started with the Ivan Provorov trade, then the Kevin Hayes deal, the Tony DeAngelo trade will likely follow suit in July, and now we have Matvei Michkov and Oliver Bonk coming out of the first round.
We can all take a collective sigh of relief – or at least the one’s who were clamouring for the Russian phenom – as the Philadelphia Flyers had the honour in selecting Matvei Michkov with the 7th overall selection. Due to the instability and the geopolitical landscape of Russia at the moment, it makes it hard for some to be excited considering the “Russian factor” has been looming over the NHL like a dark shadow. Rest assured Flyers fans, we finally have an exceptional talent in the pipeline, the kind of talent we’ve been screaming for and desperately lacking for eons.
It wasn’t long ago when Matvei Michkov was neck-and-neck with Connor Bedard for the top spot in consensus rankings. Bedard is a generational talent that has been compared to the likes of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby and was the locked-in first overall pick before the season even started. The uncertainties surrounding Michkov started to grow in and around that time, Adam Fantilli’s stock kept rising, and Leo Carlsson continued to excel in the SHL. Once thought to be a rival to Bedard for first overall, Michkov was losing out to Fantilli and Carlsson and was going to be a steal for anyone at #4.
His KHL contract with St. Petersburg runs through 2026, there were mystifying reports surrounding the passing of his father, and some had the idea that maybe he never crosses the pond and plays in North America. Some had stated that this was a ploy to drop his draft stock and land in a preferred destination, some were saying that other teams were leaking out wrong information, while others just didn’t have enough scouts or scouting reports on the youngster. NHL teams either pulled their scouts completely from Russia or had very in the region and that’s why some players like Dmitry Simashev, Mikhail Gulyayev, and Daniil But had wide-ranging draft rankings.
It’s a lot easier to trust prospects that play in North American or other European leagues than those playing in the KHL, especially if you’ve had firsthand opportunities to watch them play. Some NHL teams weren’t even able to get appointments with Michkov, so they had to crash his KHL games to try to get a short conversation out of him post-game.
In essence there were so many red flags on the outside looking in that it made it look like such a gamble, however Daniel Brière and company did their homework and met with him several times to make sure he was the one.
It’s understandable to relate Michkov to Ivan Fedotov because they were both Russian and with the war still going on, the government could, in theory, pull the same rabbit out of the hat. However, it truly seems like Fedotov might be the true outlier and anomaly in Russian cases.
Kirill Kaprizov and Ilya Sorokin are good examples in the modern game that were drafted by their respective NHL clubs, played out their contractual duties in the KHL, and once the contract expired they came over to the NHL and have never looked back since. Sometimes teams can broker deals to get their players out of their contracts, like how the Washington Capitals got Ivan Miroshnichenko out of his deal.
Kaprizov was drafted in the 5th round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft but didn’t make his NHL debut until 2020-21. He spent 2016-17 with Ufa Salavat Yulayev and then the next 3 seasons with CSKA Moscow and only got better and better by the year. Once he pulled over the Minnesota Wild jersey, he has been nothing short of spectacular with 114 goals and 234 points in 203 games.
Sorokin was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft but didn’t make his NHL debut until the 2020-21 season. He spent his draft+1 season with Novokuznetsk Metallurg before playing 6 years with CSKA Moscow as well. He posted save percentages of .953, .929, .931, .940, and .935 in his final 5 seasons in the KHL. At the NHL-level he has posted a 70-46-18 record with a .924 SV% and a 2.33 GAA, while also being a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.
If the Russians were too scared about losing some of their top premier talents to the NHL, there would’ve been no chance that Kaprizov or Sorokin would’ve made it over the pond, while also factoring in that CSKA Moscow is essentially the military team. So that theory, similarly with the other ones, can be thrown out the window for the time being.
Michkov has been described by some as the next Alexander Ovechkin of Russian hockey, while others have described him as a hybrid of Kirill Kaprizov and Nikita Kucherov. He has been everything scouts have talked about and then some. In his draft season in the KHL, Michkov scored 9 goals and 20 points in just 27 games, which is 3 less points in 26 less games than what Ovechkin did in his draft season.
We’re not saying he’s going to follow suit and become the next Alexander Ovechkin, a player who is well on his way to breaking a long-standing NHL record held by Wayne Gretzky. However, what we are saying is that the Michkov-slide worked out in Phiadelphia’s favour because if you were to do the draft all over again, there would no chance that he would slip from the top-3, let alone land in the 7 spot. He’s a phenomenal talent and one that automatically changes the Flyers pipeline and landscape.
At the U-16 level in Russia, Michkov was a man amongst boys as he scored 70 goals and averaged more than 4 points per game. Then at the age of 16 and playing the U-20 level, Michkov broke the record for most goals and points scored by a 16-year-old in the MHL with 38 and 56, respectively.
Then at the U-18 World Championships, Michkov scored 12 goals and 16 points in just 7 games and took home the MVP honours – although, Connor Bedard took the gold and scored 7 goals and 14 points. Things only intensified at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup with Michkov scoring 8 goals and 13 points in just 5 games, topping the tournament along the way and capturing the gold medal.
Understanding that he couldn’t no longer get away with his hero-type hockey that earned him all the honours on the international stage or in different U-16 or U-18 leagues, he adapted to the KHL, became a more team-oriented player, and focused on different aspects of his game. He still turned out the 2nd-most points all-time by a KHL player during their draft season.
Everywhere he’s played, every time he’s strapped on the skates, Michkov has not only performed well but he has excelled. The Flyers haven’t had a natural goal scorer since Jeff Carter and Simon Gagné and we’re coming to well over a decade without their services.
The Flyers did their due diligence and extensive homework as they made sure that Michkov was on the same page. The front office and amateur scouts were blown away by not only his skill, but his desire to play in Philadelphia and to be a Flyer.
Michkov reportedly visited the Flyers at Voorhees in secrecy on Friday, and coincidentally the facility was shut down on the weekend. He then met with a larger faction of Flyers management and scouts earlier this week, but the plant had been seeded and the two sides were ready to make this dream become a reality.
Brière is well aware that he’s already the top prospect in the organization and while he knows about the 3-year wait, he knew he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to draft a talent like that. It was his passion and desire for the city and the team that really drove them to make the pick and that is something that should make Flyers fan even more excited. I can’t stress enough the amount of times both parties talked about Michkov’s desire to be drafted as a Flyer.
The top-3 was always going to be Bedard, Fantilli, and Carlsson. After that, the San Jose Sharks were oddly quiet for a 4th overall pick but it was destined they were going to take Will Smith over Michkov. The true wild card was always going to be Montreal, who shifted their attention to Smith and David Reinbacher and with the former being drafted before them, they gladly went with their latter option. Arizona did dig into the Russian pool but went off the board with Dmitry Simashev at 6, which then allowed the Flyers to do as they pleased.
The Sharks got a fantastic talent in Smith, the Canadiens got a good defenseman in Reinbacher, the Coyotes will have a good defenseman in Simashev, and the Flyers got an elite scoring machine in Michkov.
Bob McKenzie might’ve been the first one to allude to the idea that if he slipped past Montreal, the Coyotes were not going to be a good fit, so he would end up with either the Flyers or Capitals. It happened, it’s real, and the Flyers can now add Matvei Michkov to their collection of forwards that includes Cutter Gauthier and Tyson Foerster.
The hockey world has sung the praises of the Philadelphia Flyers for the selection, there are projections out there that show he’s got a 99% chance of being a superstar and being compared to the likes of Mario Lemieux and Paul Kariya, the Montreal Canadiens and Kent Hughes have been looked upon with raised eyebrows for their decision to stay put and draft Reinbacher, and there’s some belief out there that Michkov might make it over before 2026. All of this, and then some, should have the entire fanbase back on track.
If we have to wait until 2026 it will be a tad excruciating at times when we started seeing highlight reels and videos of what he’s doing for St. Petersburg in the KHL but by the time Jones and Brière have gutted the fabric of this franchise and rooted them from their rebuild, Michkov will be ready to make an immediate impact à la Kirill Kaprizov or Ilya Sorokin.
However, let’s all just soak in that after all the smokescreens that were being thrown around for nearly 2 months, Matvei Michkov – who wanted to be a Philadelphia Flyer – had his wish come true as he was selected 7th overall and should be donning the new burnt orange jerseys at some point in the distant future.
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