Philadelphia Flyers
BREAKING NEWS: Flyers Draft Matvei Michkov At 7; ‘A Talent We Can’t Pass Up’
The Philadelphia Flyers did it. They took the biggest swing in the draft, selecting Russian Matvei Michkov with the No. 7 overall pick in the NHL Draft on Wednesday night in Nashville.
General manager Daniel Briere calmly stood on the stage in Nashville and announced the selection of Michkov, supposedly the draft’s second-most talented player after top pick Connor Bedard.
“He seemed to have a really good time [when Michkov met with the Flyers],” Briere said.
“We actually met him a couple times. You can tell that for some reason he loved the Flyers.
“He wanted to be a part of the Flyers. We saw it on stage his reaction was amazing.
“He convinced us basically in the meeting that he wanted to be there and wanted to be a Flyer so our staff all felt really, really good about selecting him.
“We know he has a contract for three more seasons but for us we just felt after watching him play and after meeting him we just felt it’s just a talent we can’t pass up.”
Michkov looked thrilled being selected by Philadelphia. “I’m glad to be a Flyer,” Michkov told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan through an interpreter. “I have no words, such an emotional moment. He thinks [he’ll be in the NHL] quite soon. It is his dream to be there.
“It means a lot to him. It’s his dream and his dream is to also win the Stanley Cup.”
The pick is considered risky because of Michkov’s uncertain playing status. He is under contract in Russia until 2026. The future of Russian players coming to North America is uncertain.
Michkov is 5-foot-10, 172-pound dynamo on the ice. Elite Prospects’ NHL Draft Guide said about Michkov: “The rare triple-threat winger, Michkov is a constant threat to find the back of the net.
“His puck skills are near the top of the draft, owing to immense creativity, hip pocket handling, dextrous hands, and a never-say-die attitude.
“You may think that you have him, but most of the time, you really don’t. His ability to problem-solve his way out of defensive pressure is at a level all its own. Michkov creates plays on the ice that we can’t even fathom with the benefit of a bird’s eye view.”
The draft broke the Flyers’ way. No one traded up to land Michkov, as the Capitals might have done. When Arizona took defenseman Dmitry Simashev at 6, the Flyers had their choice of Michkov or Ryan Leonard, described as a prototypical Flyer.
Previous Michkov Coverage
Here is some previous coverage of Michkov from Philly Hockey Now:
Do the Flyers risk drafting Michkov: https://phillyhockeynow.com/2023/06/13/do-flyers-risk-drafting-russian-star-michkov-if-hes-available/
Opinion: The Flyers want to draft Michkov and will trade up to get him: https://phillyhockeynow.com/2023/06/26/opinion-flyers-want-to-draft-matvei-michkov-and-will-trade-up-if-necessary/
Michkov’s Rankings:
Ranked #4 by CONSOLIDATED RANKING
Ranked #4 by ELITEPROSPECTS.COM
Ranked #3 by FCHOCKEY
Ranked #4 by FLOHOCKEY/CHRIS PETERS
Ranked #3 by DAILY FACEOFF
Ranked #4 by THE HOCKEY NEWS
Ranked #5 by TSN/BOB McKENZIE
Ranked #5 by MCKEEN’S HOCKEY
Ranked #4 by TSN/CRAIG BUTTON
Ranked #2 by NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING (EU Skaters)
Ranked #5 by SPORTSNET
Ranked #4 by HPR/SHANE MALLOY
Ranked #5 by RECRUIT SCOUTING
Ranked #3 by DOBBERPROSPECTS
Ranked #3 by DRAFT PROSPECTS HOCKEY
Ranked #3 by SMAHT SCOUTING
Michkov was Briere’s first draft choice as the Flyers’ general manager. He sure started his managerial career with a bang.
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A very disappointing pick by the Flyers. I have a sneaking suspicion that Michkov is going to turn out to be Nail Yakupov 2.0. Ryan Leonard would have been a much better choice.
Somewhere in the cosmos Ed Snider is loosing his shit.
Uncertainty about how a player may develop and political concerns notwithstanding, this was a great pick. Highly skilled with gamebreaking talent. There was no way the Flyers could have left him there when he was available. And we screwed the Capitals, haha. The “prototypical Flyer” description for Ryan Leonard worried me. Years ago, we left Jaromir Jagr on the board to take a “prototypical Flyer” in Mike Ricci. How did that work out? This pick is a much-needed counter to the Flyers’ old-school philosophy.
Very happy with the pick. I didn’t expect Michkov to be there at 7. I was hoping Leonard would be there, but when Michkov was still available I was thrilled. A couple other fans I was watching with also hoped the Flyers would choose Michkov. Leonard certainly should be a good one though – has a bit of that Tkachuk-type persona. Wish we could have selected both (I can dream, right???)!
Big problem is that Putin will have him fighting in Ukraine instead of playing hockey.
Any Russian player, in NHL as well as in any other professional sport’s league in West, after russia’s initiated war against a Western country (at least in Ukraine’s desire to achieve and maintain the Western values their are more westerners than many formally Western countries), is shame and philistinism to such a league.
Look, e.g., what Czechs decided: https://www.vlada.cz/cz/media-centrum/aktualne/vlada-schvalila-navrh-legislativnich-zmen-realizujicich-ozdravny-balicek–navysit-chce-rodicovsky-prispevek-206776/# “The Cabinet also, on the proposal of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, agreed to the ban on the participation of individual athletes and sports teams representing the Russian Federation in sports competitions and matches organized on the territory of the Czech Republic [..]”.
And, in my opinion, it would be very useful to listen and act on advice of such NHL all time stars as Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Arturs Irbe, and many others who know better than others in Western sports about the realities of the russian, not only their government’s, aggressive nature and which will not change by itself.
Shame to NHL, shame to my (already ex?) Flyers for their unconscious support of the aggressor, by giving their representative a job in their (actually) hated West!
By the way
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/poland-detains-russian-hockey-player-suspicion-spying-100533893
And, please, do not say “Do not involve politics in sports!”. International sport is used both as a political weapon and as soft power – remember the soviet times, when only “amateurs” participated in the Olympics from the USSR; in relation to propaganda (and, of course, not only), today’s russia has not gone far from its mother of the soviet union, believe me! And don’t let yourself be used as useful idiots, please!