RW Matvei Michkov - HC Sochi, KHL (2023, 7th, PHI) Part 4

[pooch]

Up in the air but something like this. Farabee likely to be traded, though. Wouldn't be surprised if Frost is, too. Michkov will be stapled to PP1, though.

Tippett-Frost-TK
Foerster-Coots-Michkov
Farabee-Poehling-Hathaway
Laughton-Cates-bleh

Not Bleh...Brink.

 

[Hockeypete49]

As a Flyer fan I would just like to say Thank you to Kent Hughes.

 

[Fantomas]

Bedard isn't particularly explosive either. He's probably even an inch shorter. I don't really buy that he's much better defensively.

Bedard isn't better than anyone defensively.

Im expecting 45-50 points. A few things to keep in mind:

Torts will scratch him frequently.

Gonna be fun revisiting this thread.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Not Bleh...Brink.

I don't see Brink as a successful 4th liner.

 

[Adam Warlock]

Bedard isn't better than anyone defensively.



Gonna be fun revisiting this thread.

Do you not follow the Flyers? Torts scratched their only young center with upside (Frost) for multiple games. He scratched Sanheim 2 seasons ago for his homecoming game in Calgary that he had tons of family attending. He scratched Couturier a month after naming him captain. He benched Konecny for entire periods.

You guys really think a 19 year old is gonna come in here and play big minutes under this guy?

 

[Rebels57]

Incredibly pumped that the Flyers managed to not f*** something up for a change, but I am not excited that he has to deal with Torts for at least his first season. However, I am excited that Michkov will eventually get Torts fired.

 

[pooch]

I don't see Brink as a successful 4th liner.

I'd move Hathaway down and put Bobby Bleh on the 3rd line. That said, I dont think these speculative lines matter much because I think they will be moving some players out.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Do you not follow the Flyers? Torts scratched their only young center with upside (Frost) for multiple games. He scratched Sanheim 2 seasons ago for his homecoming game in Calgary that he had tons of family attending. He scratched Couturier a month after naming him captain. He benched Konecny for entire periods.

You guys really think a 19 year old is gonna come in here and play big minutes under this guy?

Watched lots of Flyers game. I don't think the Frost scratching was an issue.

He played the hell out of Tippett because he recognized he was one of the few high upside players on the team, despite Tippett making mistakes. Tried doing the same with Brink but Brink didn't have enough success.

He's going to play the crap out of Michkov.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Do you not follow the Flyers? Torts scratched their only young center with upside (Frost) for multiple games. He scratched Sanheim 2 seasons ago for his homecoming game in Calgary that he had tons of family attending. He scratched Couturier a month after naming him captain. He benched Konecny for entire periods.

You guys really think a 19 year old is gonna come in here and play big minutes under this guy?

I've heard Frost isn't the player who always plays at 100%, and Torts hates it. Michkov on the other hand always does his best in every game. Not that he looks great in every his game but he always tries to look great.

 

[Hinterland]

I've heard Frost isn't the player who always plays at 100%, and Torts hates it. Michkov on the other hand always does his best in every game. Not that he looks great in every his game but he always tries to look great.

I don't know, man. I'm a bit more sceptical. You probably watched him much more than I did but the but I can promise you that what I saw wouldn't be enough to stay out of Torts doghouse for very long. Michkov's game with the puck is excellent but his positioning against the puck is gonna need a lot of work to get to NHL level. He likes to cheat and gamble in order to create offense and advantages for himself and his effort I'd describe as selective at best. Some of that can be accepted by certain coaches (see Kucherov in Tampa) but Torts isn't gonna have any of it. So at the very least some adjustments will have to be made to stay in the lineup.

 

[majormajor]

I've heard Frost isn't the player who always plays at 100%, and Torts hates it. Michkov on the other hand always does his best in every game. Not that he looks great in every his game but he always tries to look great.

I really haven't seen that in Michkov. Some games he's hyper competitive and other games it's not there at all.

 

[Adam Warlock]

I've heard Frost isn't the player who always plays at 100%, and Torts hates it. Michkov on the other hand always does his best in every game. Not that he looks great in every his game but he always tries to look great.

There is no consistency to who Torts likes and doesnt like. He demoted York bc of his personality. He scratched Frost bc Frost wouldnt yell back at him...and then once he did he was an everyday player. He scratched Sanheim bc hes a dick.

But for me...the best indicator for MM is the Coots situation. He scratched Coots bc he resented Briere and Jones pushing for him to be captain. I fear hes going to resent MM bc hes going to be told he has to make the team.

Maybe Torts will love MMs game and his firey attitude...its more Torts ego im worried about.

 

[MrNasty]

Probably already on here but the agreement with SKA states that he returns there is he doesn't make the NHL team. Philly will no doubt make sure he does.
This is much the same as McGroarty wanting to play in the NHL or go back to Michigan

 

[Hinterland]

Probably already on here but the agreement with SKA states that he returns there is he doesn't make the NHL team. Philly will no doubt make sure he does.
This is much the same as McGroarty wanting to play in the NHL or go back to Michigan

He's gonna make the team no matter what. Question is what happens if he's in Torts dog house. Once you're in there it's tough to get out. Let's hope it won't get this far but it would be interesting to see how long it would take for Michkov to want out if he's not or barely playing.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Probably already on here but the agreement with SKA states that he returns there is he doesn't make the NHL team. Philly will no doubt make sure he does.
This is much the same as McGroarty wanting to play in the NHL or go back to Michigan

Given Michkov's play in the KHL I think it's obvious he's NHL ready. 41 points in 47 games with all his health problems is very good and at the level of top AHL scorers, and Michkov was 18-19 year old. Kids with this kind of statistics usually come to NHL and stay (look at Stankoven for example).

Don't forget Michkov will be 1 year older, and at this age players usually make huge progress with each new year.

 

[Realgud]

If he's mature enough and gets involved defensively, he'll be just fine. His defensive game is very good, he just needs to use it instead of cheating for offence and Torts will love him.

 

[Hinterland]

Given Michkov's play in the KHL I think it's obvious he's NHL ready. 41 points in 47 games with all his health problems is very good and at the level of top AHL scorers, and Michkov was 18-19 year old. Kids with this kind of statistics usually come to NHL and stay (look at Stankoven for example).

Don't forget Michkov will be 1 year older, and at this age players usually make huge progress with each new year.

Torts doesn't care if you're a 10 or 100 point scorer. If you don't meet his standards then you're not gonna play. Nobody ever questioned Michkov's talent or ability to make plays with the puck. It's his game against the puck (or lack thereof) that's likely to annoy Torts. Hope I'm wrong but Torts has scratched plenty of top players before and Michkov in many ways does fit into the category of players Torts doesn't like. His game against the puck is a work in a work in progress, he's willing to gamble/cheat in order to create offense, his intensity/effort level is inconsistent and selective at best and he's been scratched by other coaches before. Torts prefers mature players willing to leave it all out there every shift of every game all season long and players he can trust to not make mistakes, not take stupid risks. Torts is a defensive minded coach. The skillset is not a priority of his when evaluating players.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Torts doesn't care if you're a 10 or 100 point scorer. If you don't meet his standards then you're not gonna play. Nobody ever questioned Michkov's talent or ability to make plays with the puck. It's his game against the puck (or lack thereof) that's likely to annoy Torts.

It doesn't work with Torts this way. Panarin wasn't a defensive wizard on the Jackets as well, and never had problems with Torts.

 

[Musampa]

Torts and Michkov is a match made in heaven. Hitchcock vs Filatov 2.0.

 

[Jaynki]

Didn't Montreal's scout say the unknown surrounding Michkov's contract contributed to the team picking one guy over another? I thought it was pretty explicit last year at the draft. The risk of Michkov not coming over immediately was dangerous for GMs who are graded every season. Also, there were some people who even questioned whether he would come over at all. Those were always ridiculous voices. The other factor I heard was scouts in the NHL had not seen him in person since the tournament before Russia was booted from international Competition in 2021.

I think if you asked experts on the day of the draft when these decisions were being made "waiting for Michkov" was why he fell. Some may argue positional value too, but those people were influenced by his KHL contract too. I wonder if there were no conditions such as that, if some of the teams taking center would have weighed Michkov differently with the wait ending up being one season.

I think his size, defensive commitment and attitude were bigger red flag then his contract.

 

[Redpath]

The Flyers are cognizant around the marketing and excitement that Michkov holds for the future of the franchise.

Maybe Michkov finds himself with limited minutes for game or scratched eventually at some point next season, but I don't think we'll see any sort of prolonged scratching like we did with Frost. Even Tortorella will know that he's playing with fire if he dare mess with the franchise's prodigal son, and I suspect that Briere, Jones, and even Hilferty will be close by to remind him so.

 

[Fantomas]

Do you not follow the Flyers? Torts scratched their only young center with upside (Frost) for multiple games. He scratched Sanheim 2 seasons ago for his homecoming game in Calgary that he had tons of family attending. He scratched Couturier a month after naming him captain. He benched Konecny for entire periods.

You guys really think a 19 year old is gonna come in here and play big minutes under this guy?

You're comparing Frost to Michkov. I'll leave you to reflect on your own failure.

 

[FlyguyOX]

There is no consistency to who Torts likes and doesnt like. He demoted York bc of his personality. He scratched Frost bc Frost wouldnt yell back at him...and then once he did he was an everyday player. He scratched Sanheim bc hes a dick.

But for me...the best indicator for MM is the Coots situation. He scratched Coots bc he resented Briere and Jones pushing for him to be captain. I fear hes going to resent MM bc hes going to be told he has to make the team.

Maybe Torts will love MMs game and his firey attitude...its more Torts ego im worried about.

Whole lot of conjecture in here

 

[Fantomas]

I didn't realize Flyers fans felt such intense self-loathing.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Every Russian has this clause. Voronkov had the same. They have a choice to go home at mid season if they want

Probably already on here but the agreement with SKA states that he returns there is he doesn't make the NHL team. Philly will no doubt make sure he does.
This is much the same as McGroarty wanting to play in the NHL or go back to Michigan

I didn't realize Flyers fans felt such intense self-loathing.

That board is insane.