After being selected seventh overall by the Flyers in the 2023 NHL Draft, Matvey Michkov returned back to Russia to play in the KHL due to his contract with SKA St. Petersburg that runs through the end of the 2025-26 KHL season. The hype was high and Matvey did not disappoint. Besides the one game with SKA, Michkov finished the year with 19 goals and 22 assists for 41 points in 47 games.
First, I would like to apologize for no monthly updates after November. December was a wash for reasons you’ll read below, and during that time I was dealing with two major problems, one being car problems for over a month and an ACL injury, so I do apologize for that.
To start off the year, Michkov looked very good in preseason tournament games with SKA and even played center with a goal to work on his defensive responsibilities. Even after a strong preseason where. he was over a point per game, Michkov was still scratched early in the season by SKA before playing one game for them with minuscule playing time. This eventually led to him being loaned to HC Sochi, where he was loaned last year. Michkov really started strong with Sochi. After joining Sochi, Michkov got to around a ppg pace and stayed around that for most of the season.
Michkov, in more games than not, showed incredible skill and awareness worthy of an elite prospect. The kid who was considered by many to just be Ovi Lite, but Michkov has shown more than just that. The goal-scoring is there, it always has been, but Michkov showed some amazing playmaking ability and had more highlights than just his goals including slick passes to the front of the net that somehow weren’t picked off or making spin-o-rama passes. And his goal-scoring isn’t one-dimensional either. Unlike Ovechkin who is primarily known for scoring on the one-tee, Michkov scored goals from all over, with his specialty being close range, even though medium range suits his shot better. Michkov didn’t care about the beauty of the goal, he just wanted the puck in the net.
Michkov did suffer some setbacks, obviously not getting that vow of confidence from SKA wasn’t what he expected, and would’ve probably done a lot better if given the same opportunities with SKA that he did in Sochi. The talent was a clear difference between SKA and Sochi. But, probably the biggest setback was getting pneumonia in December and missing almost all their games that month. The disease also affected his play during the early part of January, nor did it help that he missed a few games before December due to illness. Michkov missed out on about 20 games this year.
With all that said, and his multiple setbacks, Michkov had a legendary season. In what is widely regarded as the best league outside of the NHL, Michkov, at 18/19, had the second-best season by a 19-year-old ever, right between Kirill Kaprizov and Evgeni Kuznetsov. Michkov tied Kuzy and Kirill for assists at 22, but Kaprizov had one more goal in his age-19 season than Michkov did. Michkov had a slightly better season, statistically, than Kuznetsov since they had the same stats but Michkov played one less game. Doesn’t change the fact that he was at most one off of tying KHL records, whether that be goals, assists, or points.
As for next season, Michkov will play in Russia. It’s 99.999999999999% confirmed. While a buyout with SKA is technically possible, SKA probably wants him to play at least one season for them before even considering letting him come to North America. We have seen two notable names terminate their contracts with KHL teams to sign their ELCs, them being Ivan Miroschnichenko and Marat Khusnutdinov. Should be mentioned that Marat’s contract ended this offseason with Sochi, so it was basically getting out of the contract a month or so early. Miroschnichenko terminated his contract a year before it would’ve ended. It should be mentioned that Kirill Kaprizov’s KHL contract had already ended before he signed with Minnesota. For all these reasons, plus Michkov playing in a tournament since Sochi failed to make the playoffs, 2024 will not be the year of Matvey in Philly. However, it would ease my mind and many others if I was proven wrong.
Also looking forward to next season, Michkov is probably setting his sights on breaking records for his age-20 season in the KHL. Danila Yurov, the Wild’s first-round selection in 2022, just posted the most points by a 20-year-old in a KHL season with 49, only eight points more than Michkov this season. If Michkov can get top-six minutes with SKA, he could definitely break that record. Other major records for age-20 KHL seasons are Anatoli Golyshev’s record for goals (25) and Marat Khusnutdinov’s record for assists (30).
Michkov will not be able to show off his talents at the World Juniors later this year/next year due to the IIHF still banning Russia and Belarus from IIHF events. That means the next time we could see Michkov playing outside the KHL could be in the 2026 Olympics, assuming Russian athletes can still participate.
By Noah Caplan (@Phlyers24)
Photo credit: KHL
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