Well, the Philadelphia Flyers have finally done it. It was something that was commonly discussed before the 2024-25 season even began as something that would eventually happen. Matvei Michkov is listed as a healthy scratch for Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella has made the ultimate decision to not dress Michkov in the middle of the team’s current three-game road trip. Michkov, who is really the future of this franchise and is the leading favorite to walk away from this season as the winner of the Calder Trophy, will not be playing on Thursday night and sitting up in the press box instead of trying to help the team win in Tampa.
Is this warranted? Maybe just a little bit. We saw the writing on the wall as Tortorella benched the 19-year-old phenom on Tuesday against the Hurricanes for a stretch of time, but this is taking it to the next step and having Michkov sit for an entire 60 minutes instead of for several shifts. But truly, not to defend sitting your star rookie, but Michkov has not had the same jump he did to start his first couple of games in the NHL this season.
After scoring four goals and nine points in his first eight games, Michkov has earned just one single assist in the last five and made just nine shots on goal in that stretch. Those are not great numbers. Add in the context that just one of his 10 points has come at 5-on-5 and he has just 11 shots during even strength play through those 13 games played — he is not really being the offensive driver out there that we hoped to see. And to just add the final nail in this healthy-scratch coffin, the Flyers have been outscored 4-10 when Michkov has been on the ice at 5-on-5. If it was anyone else, we might be calling for him to get some rest as well.
But it’s Matvei Michkov and this just shows that this team really does not care what other people think about them. Their star rookie needs a break after having a string of not-good performances, no matter who it is.
Hopefully, this doesn’t become such a massive thing, but we know that Tortorella will have to explain his decision soon.
