As we near the Christmas holidays, the Philadelphia Flyers sit tied for the second Wild Card playoff spot with a 14-13-4 record, and a lot of that success has to do with the scintillating performance from their rookie phenom, Matvei Michkov.
Of course, we can’t forget the incredible start to the season from Travis Konecny, who leads the team in nearly every offensive category, or Travis Sanheim, who has paced a much improved backend from last year. However, what Michkov has done has been as everything as advertised and then some.
It’s been a very long time since the Flyers have had an impactful rookie and you can either go to Shayne Gostisbehere’s midseason promotion in 2015-16, or even go all the way back to Mikael Renberg in 1993-94 and no one would bat an eye.
Renberg’s 82 points in 83 games in 1993-94 remains undefeated with Dave Poulin sliding in second with 76 points in 73 games in 1983-84, and both Eric Lindros and Brian Propp recording 75 points in their respective rookie seasons.
At this current moment, Michkov sits tied for 54th ironically with Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Claude Giroux with 27 points and it’s very conceivable that he jumps into the top-25 in a matter of months, which is currently occupied by Larry Goodenough’s 42 points in 1975-76.
At the NHL-level, he paces all rookies with 27 points, which is 8 more than Lane Hutson and Macklin Celebrini. His 11 tallies are one more than Celebrini, and his 16 assists are just 3 off from Hutson for the lead. Celebrini is his true rival for the throne this season as the youngster has potted 6 goals and 12 points over his last 9 games to get back within arm’s reach of Michkov.
Even beyond the rookie equation, what Michkov has done in 28 games is foreign to some of the Flyers’ previous and current core players and veterans. While a point-per-game pace has become the norm in recent years, the Flyers have missed the boat since Giroux’s 2018-19 campaign and Konecny’s 61 points in 60 games from the 2022-23 season.
Michkov is second on the team in goals, assists, and points – trailing just Konecny in all categories – and he has a relatively comfortable edge over the rest of his teammates. His 55 shots are 6th-most, his ridiculous 20% shooting percentage is tops for the club, and his 17:01 ATOI is 3rd-most amongst team forwards.
Michkov has also been very good at even-strength, which was always seen as his major weakness. He has tallied 6 even-strength goals to go along with 9 assists, he’s second on the team with a +5 rating, and he’s collected 12 even-strength points over his last 15 games to go along with a +13 rating since being made a healthy scratch. He hasn’t finished a game with a minus since the 2nd of November.
John Tortorella drew the ire of the hockey world when he scratched Michkov for 2 games in the middle of November. While it didn’t necessarily make sense to most, Tortorella – for all his faults – is at least very consistent. He had mentioned before the season even started that there would be bumps along the way and that he could sit him from time to time.
The veteran bench boss had made note that he had never played more than a certain allotment of games in his young career and that he didn’t want him to get tired legs so early in the year. However, another key point was Michkov’s 5-on-5 play, which was tailing off at the time.
Tortorella has benched almost every player currently on the roster for their lackadaisical efforts off the puck and Michkov was just another example. Since his brief hiatus, Michkov has been noting short of fantastic and it seems like whatever was relayed between coach, translator, and player, has worked like gangbusters because the Russian rookie looks like a completely different player.
The confidence, swagger, and persona he oozes is unlike anything Flyers fans have seen in decades. Every time he touches the puck, you know something amazing can happen, and it usually does. His 3 overtime game winning tallies has given them new life in the 3-on-3 session, his 5 goals and 12 points on the power play has brought a historically bad man advantage back from the dead, and his recent play has given way to fantastic even-strength play from the team as a whole.
He also etched his name in good company with his efforts before turning 20 years of age. He joins a rarified group of players with an elite points per game average in their teen years that includes Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.
Bill Meltzer took to the Flyers’ official site and added a few more interesting stats, which includes Michkov having the 4th-most goals in franchise history for a rookie through the 11th of December of their respective season behind Lindros’ and Renberg’s 15 and Propp’s 14, 2nd-most assists behind Propp’s 18, and 4th-most points behind Propp’s 32, Renberg’s 30, and Lindros’ 28.
In just his first season at the NHL-level, Michkov has changed the tone and tune to which media outlets talk about him. Prior to his draft, plenty of people challenged his character and personality, claiming he wasn’t a good teammate, and so on and so forth. His draft stock took a hit but that was only a boon for the Flyers as they were able to get their future superstar cornerstone in a year where he could have easily gone 2nd overall.
It will be interesting to see if the rookie hits any bumps along the way, but he is en route to an amazing rookie season, the likes of which the Flyers have not seen in well over three decades.
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