The Philadelphia Flyers might not be trying to be the modern-day Broad Street Bullies, but their most exciting player certainly is.
On the second day of training camp, as roles started to get settled into and the keen prospects still hanging around, Matvei Michkov decided to show up and put on a display of dominance. All day long, according to those who were there to witness the 20-year-old Russian winger, he was making sure every single person knew that he is not going to suffer any sophomore slump.
Beyond scoring goals and showing off some dazzling skill, Michkov was in the offensive zone, working hard, and simply bullying poor blueliners who had the job to defend him.
During a 2-on-2 box-out drill, the duo of Michkov and Grebenkin were up against the young defense duo of 2025 fifth-round pick Luke Vlooswyk and 22-year-old Ty Murchison. And, well, Michkov decided to toss some dudes around and make someone embarrassed.
Rick Tocchet talked about noticing Matvei Michkov’s competitiveness and you can see it here.
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) September 19, 2025
He takes a couple of crosschecks, outmuscles Ty Murchison and then sets up a goal. pic.twitter.com/0OatpSNYEk
That is just one little instance of Michkov being able to bend the game to his will. It was not an easy drill and up against two defenders who have more size to him, but still, the winger decided throw some body around.
In the clip provided by NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall, we see Murchison give Michkov a slight crosscheck as the winger tries to receive the puck. Possession escapes him and instead of taking his time to get his sight back on the puck, Michkov just absolutely levels Murchison down on his rear end towards the boards, and swiftly gets the puck right back and scores a goal all by himself.
That’s the type of play that just makes you sit back and think about his upcoming season and just what we could really expect. Even if it was up against two defensemen with zero NHL experience and the one that got knocked down just signed his first professional contract a few months ago, and the other is a string-bean WHL defensemen that just legally became an adult, it was something. Murchison is officially listed at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds and Michkov just made him look like a little bit of a fool.
Michkov’s new head coach noticed his drive right away.
“Early on, I was watching him and very competitive,” Rick Tocchet said after the first day of training camp Thursday. “We did a 2-on-2 box-out drill and he’s trying to get to the net. Like, I love that. I was told that he loves to be around the net. It’s a tough drill — you’re boxing out, you have to spin off and he wasn’t shy about that. The kid loves to score goals and if you look at the great goalscorers around the league, they score around the net and I think he knows that.”
It is slightly funny that Tocchet touches on the exact same drill that he ran on the first day, noting Michkov’s competitiveness, and then on the second day of camp with the same drill, he increases the intensity and shows even more physicality than he did the previous day. Just think about what he’s going to do on the third day. Maybe he’ll drop the gloves.
We might be in for a treat if Michkov decides to bring this new level of tenacity to the regular season.
