What started out as a little trickle of rumors has potentially turned into a broken dam of actuality as it appears that 2023 seventh overall pick Matvei Michkov could actually be making the jump to the NHL during the 2024-25 campaign, two years before his original ETA of 2026-27. While official confirmation has yet to be made by the team, or anybody, for that matter, loosely translated reports from sorta credible KHL site seem to indicate he could be on his way to North America.
If the Flyers do somehow pull this off and some magic were to happen, it’s a big win, but not the end of the story. What are the next steps of the team if he actually arrives?
The Flyers have scheduled their rebuilding timeline around Michkov and his arrival in 2026-27 and, for the most part, haven’t shown much outward interest in streamlining that end goal from an on-ice perspective. But if Michkov is due to show up, they can’t afford to drag their feet for an undermined amount of time any longer.
The front office needs to start swinging for the fences in trades and free agency immediately to find help for the anemic roster they originally seemed content to run back next season. Michkov has served as a golden carrot in that regard. There are problems the organization knew they had to address, like the power play, but it wasn’t a “this summer” kind of urgency to get around to it.
They don’t necessarily need to build a Cup contender overnight, there’s far too much to address in one offseason in order for a legitimate playoff team to be constructed, but running it back with this skeleton crew of a roster isn’t acceptable. Even a single bonafide top six forward (preferably a center) could be the difference for a rookie Michkov.
And it’s hard to mention Michkov’s arrival without talking about John Tortorella. The oldest of old school coaches in the league isn’t exactly on the up-and-up when it comes to young, modern skilled players. If someone like Trevor Zegras scoring a Michigan is enough to give an elderly man heart palpitations, maybe making it his responsibility to oversee a theoretical sensation like Michkov may not breed the best results.
If Michkov sticks (stuck?) to his expected ETA of 2026-27, that should be the first season that Tortorella is no longer under contract with the Flyers as he signed a four-year deal back in 2022. So there’s a chance their paths don’t cross. Any early arrival of Michkov, however, more than likely they’re going to have to get acquainted, and Tortorella hasn’t exactly had a glimmering track record with integrating rookies into the NHL.
In fairness to Torts, he has been overall fine with the “can’t miss” caliber of player like Cam York and Tyson Foerster. But Foerster earned the favor because of his two way play. Guys like Bobby Brink, who didn’t have a solid defensive season got punished for every defensive mistake. And there’s no good reason why a player like Michkov should be contained to playing a defense-first role anyway. Can Torts finally get over himself and just deploy Michkov as an all-offense-all-the-time player? Chances are no, but it sounds like we’ll get confirmation one way or another sooner than expected.
So do the Flyers actually build this summer to accommodate Michkov? There’s the other side of the coin here and that’s the potential for them to stay the mediocre course after patting themselves on the back that they landed Michkov early. “He’ll totally fix all the problems singlehandedly” is a believable stance both the front office (and fanbase) could take, only to be hugely disappointed in 2024-25.
It sure seems like Michkov is on his way to becoming a Flyer in 2024-25. And if, for some reason, he doesn’t, an early arrival before 2026-27 is still very likely. It’ll put Danny Briere’s GM skills to the test. The organization hasn’t seen a major trade or free agent signing since the Cup run era, and if the Flyers feel like they’ve got their center piece in Michkov, they need to go out of their way to insulate him as quickly as possible. This is not the kind of prospect that they can ruin like they’re seemingly ok with doing to virtually everyone else.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: Inquirier.com
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