It's interesting how omission can be held against someone in a court of law, but somehow shouldn't be considered here on HFboards. It's not only what he said, but what was reported about him refusing to meet certain teams and putting in more effort with others (Philly).
We have Friedmann saying he wouldn't have played for some teams. Nobody has his connections and they're validated by hockey players (including the chiclet guys).
We know he refused to see both Columbus and Arizona.
His agent said he didn't want to play for Washington and was apparently disrespectful to their Russian scout, according to that scout.
He was the one who contacted the Flyers, the only team he contacted.
When talking about the Reinbacher pick, Bobrov mentioned how Reinbacher would better permeate the culture they want. They mentioned "risk".
While nobody can say with 100% probability that he rigged the draft, there's enough reliable chatter to say with some confidence that he, at the very least, helped himself get where he wanted. Teams could have taken a chance since outside of Arizona, I don't think he flat out told any team not to bother, but this is a sport that puts emphasis on team culture and frowns on les indivualissss, so no doubt some of them wanted to steer clear. There's also been a bias against Russians since the KHL was formed. If he didn't outright rig things, he was probably fine with how things were playing out before the draft.
Good post.
The takeaway is we need to acknowledge we're seeing these conspiracies through a keyhole, meaning we're only seeing a sliver of what actually happened. The rumours are so vague and there are so many missing pieces we fans can assemble the scraps of info into whatever shape we want. We did it with Bergevin, Subban, Kotkaniemi, etc. Michkov is the latest conspiracy.
I'm sure Michkov had his favourite team(s), but how far did his agent indulge this 18-year-old's emotional connection to Philadelphia? You'd think the NHL Draft is where the adult tells the kid to consider more than his love of orange, or the Rocky movies, when making a major career decision. It would be irresponsible for any professional agent to allow a client to write off other options.
That said, the agent can't stop Michkov from projecting an attitude – for better or worse – to the GMs who met with him. Was he the first prospect to put on a better or worse face for different teams? Surely not. There are probably hundreds of players who were drafted by teams they may not have liked at the time, but over time adjusted just fine. GMs know this. However, it still comes down to a best-guess whether the 18-year-old you've just met is a sullen diva, or just a naive kid. In Michkov's case, HuGo could've gambled on winning the kid over, but clearly they disliked the person more than they liked the talent.
Whether we like this topic or not (and I know some of us HATE talking about this!), we'll probably continue debating the Michkov Pick because it was a unique situation. Michkov wasn't a star we simply missed, like so many other blown picks. With Michkov, we all knew this star was teed up for whichever team picked him. HuGo just had to say his name and the kid would've been a Hab. They chose otherwise, for reasons we'll never fully know. And so the endless debate will be whether we willingly passed on Michkov The Star, or whether we would've gotten Michkov The Sullen Teenager.
Of course, the other reason we're still talking about him is he's only one onstage until Reinbacher makes his grand (and slightly overdue) entrance.
