The arrival of Matvei Michkov in Philadelphia has naturally led to fans looking for comparable players to align expectations with. Some landed on Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, a fellow Russian player who took the league by storm upon his arrival.
Kaprizov, now 27, has registered 330 points in 278 NHL games. He was 23 years old when he made the jump to the NHL, being drafted in 2015 and not debuting for the Wild until January of 2021, seeing through his KHL contract and temporarily hindered by the pandemic.
Kaprizov has led the Wild in points in all four seasons of his NHL career, including a 47-goal, 108-point campaign during his sophomore campaign in 2021-22.
On a macro scale, the Wild have made the playoffs in three of the four seasons Kaprizov has been in the league, finishing third, second and third in the division during their postseason berths and were quickly dispatched in the first round during all three appearances to the Golden Knights, Blues and Stars respectively.
The lack of true star power on their roster outside of Kaprizov still remains a problem.
They have a few young guys filling in some holes like Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Marco Rossi, but the veteran forward group of Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, and Marcus Johansson isn’t exactly a young or intimidating core. Kaprizov has been able to elevate their games, but the peaks of their respective careers are well in the rearview and the top Russian can only carry them so far.
And not to mention the $15 million in dead cap the Wild have on the books from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. You know, players they gave way too much money and term to that they had to eventually buyout and eat the gigantic cost of just to have enough money to pay the remainder of their roster.
Is any of this starting to sound familiar?
The Flyers landed Matvei Michkov, the seventh overall pick in 2023, two years ahead of schedule when the KHL released him from his contract and he was able to leave Russia without any problems. The followed up the surprising turn of events by doing… nothing!
Briere and co. ran back an identical roster to the one that overachieved before crashing and burning during the 2023-24 season, hoping that Michkov will solve all the problems the organization has.
If we’re going to roll under the assumption that Michkov takes a similar trajectory to Kaprizov, then some of the problems plaguing the Flyers will work themselves out. They’ll have a bonafide top forward who can elevate some of the other good-not-great players congesting the roster and the feckless power play will finally get out of the basement of the NHL after three years of consecutive last place finishes.
But on a grand scale, the Flyers still have no center depth, majority of their core under contract forever are either past or approaching 30, and aside from Michkov himself, the prospect pipeline doesn’t seem to hold much star power and the building abilities of Briere as GM are under suspicion after his “masterclass” of a 2024 offseason.
One player can turn things around, but one player cannot single handedly lead the organization to greatness. Even a 70-point season from Michkov should be enough to carry the Flyers back to the postseason for the first time in five years (assuming the goaltending holds). While that would be an improvement, there’s just not enough sure things going their way on the rest of the roster to think they’re more than a first round exit team. Without serious overhaul, the ceiling of the Flyers is still relatively limited.
The Kaprizov comparisons for Michkov are rather bold and not necessarily fair to expect. The age difference and experience level on a bigger stage does favor Kaprizov when it comes to a successful, painless NHL transition. But the Wild as a whole can be a bit of a precursor to the current state and near future of the Flyers. One star and a roster full of otherwise mediocre players does not a Cup-caliber team make.
Everyone’s hoping that Michkov shows up and is a 100-point player for the next 20 years. With the exception of Claude Giroux, it’s the kind of dominance the Flyers haven’t seen in decades. But they’re not on easy street yet. The problems with the rest of the organization that have been highlighted ad nauseam during the 2024 offseason are still very real and can’t be swept under the rug if Briere and the front office are serious about winning.
Look no further than the Minnesota Wild for proof that they’re going to need more than one player to bring glory back to Philadelphia.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 