There has been so much noise around Matvei Michkov after his disappointing sophomore season and the resulting scratches in the playoffs. But thankfully, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere is here to clear the air as he took the stand for his exit interview Thursday.
It is no secret — as Briere will mention multiple times — that Michkov did not have a good second year in the NHL. After his stellar 63-point rookie campaign that had Flyers fans dreaming of what new heights he could reach, to come out of the gate with reports of him not being ready for training camp and that setting him back from the start; resulting in a 51-point season and then ending up with a massively disappointing playoff performance, was disheartening to say the least.
Famously, Michkov not really being a factor in the playoffs led him to being scratched twice in the 10 games of the Flyers’ postseason: Game 5 against the Penguins and the postseason finale of Game 4 against the Hurricanes.
Danny Briere says Michkov’s playoff scratches were their own thing
Briere wants to make it clear that those were just one-off instances and it was head coach Rick Tocchet’s job to put his best lineup on the ice.
“Matvei is a great talent. We see him as being part of the picture for years to come. That hasn’t changed. It’s not because he was scratched in that last game, that it changes everything. The coaches wanted to put the best lineup to give them a chance to win in that last game and it’s no secret that it had been tough. Carolina’s a skating team and put a lot of pressure. There wasn’t a lot of room to create and they decided they would like to have a little bit more speed,” Briere said.
“It’s one game and in the playoffs, you have to go with the best team that you think can make you win. But it doesn’t change anything with the future.”
Briere started to mention just how much young talent is coming up, naming players like Jett Luchanko (who replaced Michkov in Game 4), Oliver Bonk, and Jack Nesbitt; as they will keep on pushing the roster and forcing the coaches and front office to make difficult decisions.
Matvei Michkov is going nowhere
But regardless, Michkov is still seen as a big part of the Flyers’ future.
“Matvei is part of that,” Briere said. “We hope that he’s a big part the future years. It’s not a secret that he’s made some mistakes along the way. I’ve made some mistakes and I was older than him in my career. We forget sometimes that he just turned 21. He’s already accomplished a lot and it’s really impressive what he’s done and to have such an impact at such an early age, we don’t see that very often in the NHL.
“It doesn’t change the future for him and for being part of what we’re building.”
So, everyone and every other blog who covers a team in the NHL, can shut up about the Michkov trade rumors. That doesn’t sound like a general manager who is going to turn and trade him just to squeeze some sort of value out of the 2023 seventh-overall pick this summer.
Now, we get to focus on Michkov having a killer third season and what he needs to do in the offseason to accomplish that.
What does Matvei Michkov hope to accomplish this summer?
For Briere, it’s pretty simple: Just work hard and understand that development is rarely ever a straight line for stars in this league.
“It’s finding another gear. He knows he needs to improve off the ice in his training, that’s not a secret. He’s admitted that himself. He’s told you guys when he came back from the Olympics,” Briere said. “So, you know, the big thing for Matvei is adapting. I think he’s a very smart, young man. He will adapt and he will learn from what happened this year. You look at players, even really star players, not too many of them — unless you’re Crosby and McDavid and maybe now Celebrini, there’s not too many guys where the arrow has been point up the entire time. You’re going to go through some ups and downs — I know I did throughout my career. It’s how he’s going to adapt to it. How he’s going to get himself back up from it. But I think he’s a smart man and will figure that out.”
A big thing has been made out of where Michkov will be training in the summer. With worries that he could not work as hard if he spent the next three and a half months back home in Russia, and so on.
The 21-year-old will be spending a good amount of time in Philadelphia, but it hasn’t been decided how long specifically.
“It’s not decided yet,” Briere said. “I know he’s said he’s going to spend some time here. I don’t think he has a plan quite yet on exactly when and where it’s going to be. But he told us that he will be here for some of the summer. He wants to make sure he’s ready to go. We did talk about the fact that training camp next year is shorter, not a lot of time to ease into it, so that was addressed with him, and he knows he has to be ready to go right from Day 1 of camp.”
Michkov was already seen skating at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees on Tuesday and Wednesday — he’s going to go psycho trying to get ready to prove everyone wrong next season. His vengeance tour is going to be sweet and he’s going to be a Flyer for many more seasons.
