The surprise arrival of Matvei Michkov just a year after his selection at 7th overall is one of the more momentous developments to have happened to the Flyers organization over the past decade. This is a player who, under the right circumstances, could change the franchise for years to come.
But at the same time, throwing a young player, even one with Michkov’s potential, to the wolves and hoping he can overcome it based on his talent alone could ruin his rookie season.
It has happened before, a player like Kent Johnson springs to mind. Johnson was thrust into the league with sky-high expectations, only to be handicapped by playing in a role that minimized his impact on the game, and with players who didn’t have elite NHL offensive abilities. Case in point, Johnson showed his very real, tangible, high-end talent in his rookie campaign with Columbus in 2022-23, playing primarily alongside Patrik Laine, who was nearly a point per game player when healthy, and Jack Roslovic, a very capable playmaking centerman who finished one point shy of his career high that season. This led to Johnson putting up a very respectable 40 points over 79 games in his rookie year, whilst also showing his ability to craft moments of magic with the puck that very few players can actually pull off in game.
But when Johnson returned for his sophmore season, the situation had changed, his former linemate Roslovic was elevated up the lineup to play with new signing Johnny Gaudreau, then traded to the Rangers in March. Laine, Johnson’s other primary running mate the year prior, was injured in December before entering the NHLPA’s Player Assistance program in January, ending his season.
So instead, Johnson played the majority of his NHL games to start 2023 with Cole Sillinger, a decent young player who was the 12th overall pick in 2021, but is still a downgrade from the more proven Roslovic, and Emil Bemstrom, who to this point in his career has been a AAAA player: someone who is too good for the AHL but cannot stick at the NHL level. To put it into perspective, combining Sillinger and Bemstrom’s point totals with the Blue Jackets in 2023-24 would still be less than what both Laine and Roslovic individually in 2022-23.
This decrease in teammate quality helped lead to what was admittedly a poor start from Johnson, who looked out of place and was eventually demoted to the AHL in November, where he spent basically the entire month. Upon returning in December he was never really able to get his offense going again, and got stuck down the lineup before suffering a season-ending labrum tear in late Feburary. A quality December was his only real highlight, and after the New Year, he basically slumped until his injury, only tallying a goal and four points in his 20 games in 2024.
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